Are activists and critics of the Government genetically abnormal? Is there an insubordination gene? Could gene-scans help identify troublemakers be sedated? Here's how the latest technology could be used to stop protests and other anti-social behaviour..


Gene scientists plan aggression drug
20 July 2004
 http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1264938,00.html
By David Adam


Scientists yesterday raised the prospect of drugs being developed to treat
violent behaviour.

As experts gathered in London for a conference to discuss the role that
genes play in aggression, Donald Pfaff of Rockefeller University said there
was enough known about how genes influence behaviour in animals to consider
designing human medicines to fight the rising tide of antisocial behaviour.

"One question we're looking at is opportunities for pharmacogenomics,"
Professor Pfaff said. "The use of cleverly designed drugs to control
inappropriate aggression and violence [could] bring that individual into a
range where normal social controls, including a good family environment and
good school environments, can work."

Scientists already know how certain genetic factors make animals, including
mice and monkeys, more likely to be aggressive. Other research has suggested
there could be a similar effect in people, but the situation is complicated
by the role of the environment.

In 2002 researchers at King's College London and the University of
Wisconsin, Madison, showed that one common form of a gene called MAOA that
acts on enzymes in the brain makes men more likely to be violent - but only
if they experienced cruelty or rejection in childhood.

Prof Pfaff said: "The end goal has to be to keep the guy out of prison, and
we are mainly talking about boys. The gender ratio is incredible." Men are
responsible for 94% of violent incidents within families, he said.

Randy Nelson, a geneticist at Ohio State University, said such drugs would
not be handed out indiscriminately. Individuals who showed impetuous
behaviour could be targeted. "If there was some sort of pharmacological
treatment that could prevent that sort of impulsive aggressiveness from
occurring, that would probably be ideal."
Drugs could also be used to treat aggression in pets, he said, perhaps
preventing dogs that bite people from being destroyed.

"By studying the molecular mechanisms of aggression you are much more likely
to get to these pharmacological interventions," Prof Nelson said.

The scientists cautioned that genes do not hold all the answers; when it
comes to aggressive behaviour, studies have found a role for both nature and
nurture.

Working with colonies of rhesus monkeys, Stephen Suomi and colleagues at the
US National Institute of Child Health and Human Develop ment have shown that
caring mothers seem to reduce the risk of bad behaviour among animals
genetically programmed to misbehave.

They tested monkeys with different versions of a gene called 5-HTT, which
controls levels of the brain chemical serotonin. Up to 40% of monkeys carry
a short version, which is linked to aggressive behaviour, including starting
fights and taking dangerous risks such as jumping long distances from
treetop to treetop.

The scientists took half the monkeys from their mothers shortly after they
were born. Only these animals forced to grow up away from their families
seemed to succumb to the disruptive influence of their short 5-HTT gene.

The scientists will discuss the issues at a conference on molecular
mechanisms influencing aggressive behaviour at the Royal Society of Medicine
on Friday.