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    Home > Biochemistry News > Biotechnology News > What is the use of genetic testing? What are the main detections?

    What is the use of genetic testing? What are the main detections?

    • Last Update: 2020-09-14
    • Source: Internet
    • Author: User
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    What is the use of genetic testing? What are the main detections? Through a mouthful of saliva, you can know your character, blood type, memory is good, drinking will not blush, or even where your ancestors came from? The genetic sequencing technology that sounds "tall" is entering the lives of ordinary people, but the controversy surrounding it has never stopped.
    below by the small editor to focus on genetic testing related knowledge.
    , 35, is a technology enthusiast who has always been interested in Internet medicine.
    2015, at an entrepreneurial salon, he heard about a start-up called WeGene that provides genetic testing services for individuals, including ancestral analysis and disease risk prediction, one of which is still the first in the country.
    "I'd like to know where my ancestors came from. He decided to give it a try.
    's curiosity is also the eternal philosophical proposition of mankind for thousands of years: "Who am I?" Where am I from? Where am I going? "Since the 21st century, scientists in Britain and the United States have mapped the first gene in human history, and people are beginning to believe that the answers to these questions are hidden in each of our genes.
    gene testing refers to the detection of DNA molecules in human blood, body fluids or cells to determine whether there is a mutation or susceptible genotype in this part of the gene, which can be used to diagnose diseases, can also be used to predict disease risk and assess the efficacy and side effects of the use of certain drugs.
    can analyze the parent family source by detecting the single-group classification of the Y chromosome, and the matrilineal ancestral source by detecting the single-group classification of mitochondrials.
    years, in the field of clinical medicine, gene testing for non-invasory prenatal screening, tumor individualization treatment and genetic disease diagnosis has initially formed a relatively stable market pattern.
    With the development of biotechnology, the cost of genetic testing is falling sharply, while more and more people want to learn more from genes, from ancestral analysis to genetic diseases, from exercise, nutrition to personality, talent, sounding like "tall" gene sequencing technology is entering the lives of ordinary people.
    Yang Yu paid 999 yuan on his official website, and a few days later, he received a box containing a instruction manual and a test tube.
    repeatedly scratched his upper and lower jaws with his tongue, he loaded enough saliva into the tiny saliva collector.
    close the lid and gently shake for 5 seconds, waiting for the DNA sample stabilizer in the collector to fully blend with the saliva and sample is complete.
    Yang Yu sent the box containing his "code of life" back to WeGene in Shenzhen, where his genetic samples will be sent to a laboratory at Fudan University, together with samples from other test takers.
    tested through genetic chip screening, the tester will test 600,000 bits in each sample.
    (Note: Bits, i.e. the specific position of the gene on the chromosome.)
    different gene bits determine the differences between individuals.
    "There's a company called 23andMe abroad that does the same, and WeGene claims to be 23andMe in China.
    " Yang Yu's family has a history of cancer, on the one hand out of curiosity about ancestry, but also want to know what kind of health risks he will face.
    23andMe, mentioned by Yang Yu, is one of the most prestigious biotech companies in the field of genetic testing, founded in 2006 by Anne Vossiki, the ex-wife of Google co-founder Sergey Brin, among others.
    by mailing test kits and collecting saliva, they pioneered genetic testing directly to ordinary consumers and at home, once setting off a wave in the United States.
    end of 2008, Time magazine named the year's "50 Most Important Inventions", with 23andMe's personal genetic testing service at the top of the list.
    it's different from medical disease testing, and it's much cheaper.
    23andMe's personal genetic testing service, consumers can learn about their ancestral information and potential health risks such as genetic diseases for just a few hundred dollars.
    2012, 23andMe even dropped the price of the test kit to $99 at one point, and its user numbers doubled rapidly over the next nine months.
    It wasn't until these two years that all kinds of genetic testing emerged quietly in China, and more and more young people like Yang Yu began to come into contact with personal genetic testing products, hoping to discover an unknown self by means of technology. Chen Gang, co-founder of
    WeGene, told China Newsweek, "Most of our users come from first-tier cities like Guangshu in the north, with white-collar workers accounting for more than 60 per cent and more in their 20s and 40s."
    addition to genetic testing, they also offer free data interpretation services to users who have been tested on 23andMe," he said.
    year, they have accumulated genomic data on more than 10,000 people in their databases.
    three weeks after the samples were sent back, Yang Yu received an online report covering seven aspects, including ancestral analysis, motor genes, nutritional metabolism, health risks, genetic diseases, drug reactions, genetic characteristics, and more than 200 interpretations.
    the results of the saliva test showed that he was "type B blood, very few type A blood; excellent explosive power, good memory; smoking is not easy to become addictive, drinking may blush, have dry earwax, exercise has a greater impact on weight loss."
    all of this is in line with the facts.
    In terms of ancestry, the report shows that his ancestors originated in Central or North Asia between 17,000 and 22,000 years ago, mainly in the Americas, much of Asia and North Africa, represented by Native Americans, Inuit and Kate, and shared the same origin as Robert Opbenhammer, the father of the atomic bomb.
    However, to his great surprise, no one in the family has ever mentioned to him that, in addition to 72.03 percent of him from the northwest is of Northern Han origin, 0.01 percent is Eskimo, there are 27.93 percent of Korean blood! "My father is from the north (northwest) and my mother is from the south (from the Yangtze River basin), why do I have so much Korean ancestry?" After consulting friends in a number of related fields, he learned that some ethnic minorities in the northwest had historically been "mixed-race" because of years of fighting, possibly from the north-west to the north-east, and later to the Korean peninsula.
    "I never thought it would be like this.
    ," Yang Yu told China Newsweek.
    A survey of 1,046 customers by Johns Hopkins University in the United States found that the three most important reasons people buy personal genetic testing services are curiosity-driven (94 percent), disease risk prediction (91 percent), and ancestry/identity (90 percent).
    you understand genetic testing? Yang Yu is a very healthy person, do not drink, do not stay up late, diet light, but also regular exercise habits.
    he never understood why, from the age of 30, every medical examination, he often had high blood lipids.
    tests showed that his genetic point rs144467873 carried a risk mutation, meaning he was at risk of developing a rare genetic disorder, type B familial hypercholesterolemia.
    "I think that's pretty accurate, " he said.
    "Although he can't infer from this that the mutated gene is the cause of his high blood lipids, Yang believes there is some connection between the two."
    also showed that Yang Yu had a 38 percent higher risk of sudden cardiac death than the average person.
    surprised him.
    have no similar medical history at home and have no symptoms of heart discomfort.
    he decided he should pay more attention later.
    curiosity about their own destiny is human nature, in the face of a new technology that can "predict the future", "accurately accurate" nature is one of the most important concerns of users.
    the most famous example of someone trying to change their future through genetic testing is American actress Angelina Jolie.
    has a family history of breast cancer, and her mother battled it for 10 years before she died of ovarian cancer at the age of 56.
    2013, Julie discovered in genetic testing that she inherited the mutated cancer susceptible gene BRCA1 from her mother, and that she had an 87 percent and 50 percent chance of developing breast and ovarian cancer in the future.
    to reduce the possible risk, she decided to undergo preventive surgery to remove both breasts.
    , she underwent surgery again to remove her ovaries and fallopian tubes.
    Julie's choice to put genetic testing in the spotlight overnight was also highly controversial.
    is such an approach a prevention or an over-correction? Does genetic testing give people more initiative, or is it easier to get people into unnecessary panic? A year ago, Li Xiaona, a 32-year-old white-collar worker in Shenzhen, was a "big weight" girl.
    at a time when work is at a bottleneck, and the huge stress and irregular diet have allowed her to weigh 78.8kg at one point, at 168cm.
    she doesn't believe in acupuncture, weight loss pills and other ways to lose weight, but also lack the motivation to exercise, weight has been high.
    December 2015, Li Xiaona conducted a campaign gene test specifically for fat reduction at Meijia Gene.
    , a gene company that focuses on "health management," designs personalized weight loss programs for each customer for genetic testing.
    genetic tests showed that her protein metabolism was high and her absorption and utilization of vitamins was low.
    this trait, the dietitian corrected her previous bad habit of not eating meat, eating staples, not eating dinner, and re-developing a balanced diet for her.
    test results also showed that aerobic exercise had a low effect on her body fat consumption, while strength training had a high impact.
    means that the previous training program of "three days a week, for a total of 30-50 minutes of aerobic exercise" did not apply to her.
    in order to improve the efficiency of fat reduction per unit of time, Li Xiaona began to walk to and from work to increase the intensity of aerobic exercise, while under the guidance of a fitness instructor, into the gym, equipment training.
    first discovered that she didn't sweat much for an hour before running, but after just over 20 minutes of strength training, she was already sweating.
    she decided to stick to it.
    in 131 days, she managed to lose 19.2kg without deliberately dieting.
    " is actually only a means, the key still depends on the individual's self-control.
    but genetic testing can give you a better understanding of what your body is like, so you lose weight and do more with less and don't go the wrong way as others do.
    ," Li Xiaona told China Newsweek.
    , she no longer has to lose weight, but the habit of eating healthy and exercising regularly has been preserved.
    in the know or WeGene official website forum, Chen Gang often receive a variety of user feedback: "My height of 180cm, should be higher than the average bar, how to measure is 'may be close to the average height'?" ""There are 86 health risks, and I have 47 'higher risks', which is not much?" "The risk of breast cancer is 86% above the average, do I have to rush to buy insurance?" He and his colleagues explain over and over again that many physiological characteristics and disease risks are complex characteristics of multigene control and are influenced by genes, as well as from factors such as the human body's internal and external environment and lifestyle.
    , genes don't mean everything, and their testing itself can't be considered a clinical product.
    "uncertainty" gives this high-tech a bit of a fortune teller flavor.
    what's the point of such a test if the prediction of disease risk becomes a question of probability and there are all sorts of future astrological questions? Indeed, the "accuracy" of genetic testing is a common controversy in the scientific community due to the limitations of human cognition of disease and genes at this stage.
    even countries that started early in the field of genetic testing have been plagued by the same problems.
    in 2013, American journalist Kira Bekoff wrote an article in The New York Times about her experience: she was tested at three well-known individual genetic testing companies, 23andMe, Genetic Testing Laboratories (G.T.L.) and Pathway Genomics, but to her surprise, each company's results were different.
    23andMe tests showed that Beckoff had a 20.2 percent chance of developing psoriasis and 8.2 percent of rheumatoid arthritis - both of which were nearly twice as likely as the average woman of the same age - but G.T.L. tests showed that her risk of psoriasis and rheumatoid arthritis was extremely low, at 2 percent and 2.6 percent.
    In coronary heart disease, 23andMe and G.T.L. tests were largely the same, with a 26-29 percent risk of developing the disease, which was essentially normal, but the pathway Genomics test was "above average."
    experts say they are not surprised by the results.
    The human body currently has nearly 60 million known or named genetic site points, and genetic testing companies typically use chip screening methods that can detect up to about 1 million bits, meaning they have limited information.
    not to mention the number of bits tested by each company, the range of genes selected, the genetic databases used and the methods used are different, and the results are bound to vary.
    , on the other hand, the scientific community is still in the final stages of basic research on the pathogenesicity of many complex diseases, and it is difficult to say how much of a role genes play in them.
    Dr. Arthur Capeler, director of medical ethics at N.Y. Langone Medical Center, went so far as to say, "This type of test may be fun as entertainment, but don't take it too seriously, don't use it to guide your usual health care and lifestyle."
    you have a few hundred dollars, you want to invest.
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