Synthetic Biology is a growing field which holds great promise in several areas of application. However, it also poses serious risks for human health and the environment that must be anticipated in order to develop effective prevention and management measures. Here, the current situation on biosafety and biosecurity in this scientific field is reviewed. Biosafety concerns mainly relate to the damaging effects for workers and the environment that could result from accidental interactions with dangerous biological agents. On the other hand, biosecurity risks refer to the potential misuses of Synthetic Biology, such as bioterrorism, biowarfare or bioattacks that could derive from the genetic engineering of organisms. In this paper, the specific challenges posed by Synthetic Biology are discussed, and perspectives in the development of measures to guide the safe advance of this discipline are presented.

Current strategies for preventing the transmission of mitochondrial disease to offspring include techniques known as mitochondrial replacement and mitochondrial gene editing. This technology has already been applied in humans on several occasions, and the first baby with donor mitochondria has already been born. However, these techniques raise several ethical concerns, among which is the fact that they entail genetic modification of the germline, as well as presenting safety problems in relation to a possible mismatch between the nuclear and mitochondrial DNA, maternal mitochondrial DNA carryover, and the “reversion” phenomenon. In this essay, we discuss these questions, highlighting the advantages of some techniques over others from an ethical point of view, and we conclude that none of these are ready to be safely applied in humans.

Since the development of recombinant DNA technologies, the need to establish biosafety and biosecurity measures to control genetically modified organisms has been clear. Auxotrophies, or conditional suicide switches, have been used as firewalls to avoid horizontal or vertical gene transfer, but their efficacy has important limitations. The use of xenobiological systems has been proposed as the ultimate biosafety tool to circumvent biosafety problems in genetically modified organisms. Xenobiology is a subfield of Synthetic Biology that aims to construct orthogonal biological systems based on alternative biochemistries. Establishing true orthogonality in cell-based or cell-free systems promises to improve and assure that we can progress in synthetic biology safely. Although a wide array of strategies for orthogonal genetic systems have been tested, the construction of a host harboring fully orthogonal genetic system, with all parts operating in an orchestrated, integrated, and controlled manner, still poses an extraordinary challenge for researchers. In this study, we have performed a thorough review of the current literature to present the main advances in the use of xenobiology as a strategy for biocontainment, expanding on the opportunities and challenges of this field of research.

The Polyribonucleotide nucleotidyltransferase 1 gene (PNPT1) encodes polynucleotide phosphorylase (PNPase), a 3′-5′ exoribonuclease involved in mitochondrial RNA degradation and surveillance and RNA import into the mitochondrion. Here, we have characterized the PNPT1 promoter by in silico analysis, luciferase reporter assays, electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSA), chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), siRNA-based mRNA silencing and RT-qPCR. We show that the Specificity protein 1 (SP1) transcription factor and Nuclear transcription factor Y (NFY) bind the PNPT1 promoter, and have a relevant role regulating the promoter activity, PNPT1 expression, and mitochondrial activity. We also found in Kaplan–Meier survival curves that a high expression of either PNPase, SP1 or NFY subunit A (NFYA) is associated with a poor prognosis in liver cancer. In summary, our results show the relevance of SP1 and NFY in PNPT1 expression, and point to SP1/NFY and PNPase as possible targets in anti-cancer therapy.

HIV/AIDS stigma is a global issue and a serious problem in African countries. Although prevalence remains high in this region, no detailed study has yet been carried out to determine and characterize this problem in Burundi. Using a qualitative analysis based on an extensive series of 114 interviews, we describe the main characteristics of HIV stigma in the country. The results of our study indicate that the problem of HIV/AIDS stigma is widespread in Burundian society, as all participants in the research reported having experienced some kind of HIV stigma. The seven dimensions of stigma identified in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) in Burundi are physical violence, verbal violence, marginalization, discrimination, self-stigma, fear and insecurity, and healthcare provider stigma. These dimensions of stigma can be experienced through different manifestations, which have been characterized in this study, revealing that the problem of stigma in PLWHA is still an important issue in Burundi.