Zhang Yixin

Suicide Related Gene 5HTTLPR and Gene Therapy

Abstract

With the development of society, fast-pace of life leads people to higher and higher pressure. As a result, suicide rate has increased, then how to prevent suicide has become a serious problem that we need to resolve. So far, most common way of preventing suicide is psychological counselling and medication. However, the invention of gene therapy brings a new way of preventing suicide for people. This paper aims at to find out whether the difference of genes can affect human’s exceptional behavior - suicide，and to discuss whether we can change human’s exceptional behavior -suicide by gene therapy. In order to illustrate these questions, four points need to be made. Firstly, introducing what is serotonin and how it works is a good beginning; whether people have exceptional behavior is due to the content of serotonin in their body. Secondly, discuss why people kill themselves from a genetic point of view. The gene - 5HTTLPR (5 - Hydroxy Tryptamine Gene-Linked Polymorphic Region) can explain this question. Finally, figure out the principle of gene therapy. These researches demonstrate that changing human’s exceptional behavior by gene therapy is possible. However, with the current level of biotechnology, there are some technical matters which we need to solve.

Movie

Research

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