Gene Therapy for Cancer has saved some people’s life!

Gene Therapy  is one of most wonderful  genetic discovery in medicine. Gene Therapy technique involved viruses to transfer or carry a gene to a person’s cells to fight or prevent diseases such as: Cancer, Parkinson’s, blood disorders (hemophilia). The part that is most excited from this technique is that medications or surgery may not be necessary to use in the future to  cure or prevent a disease. There are some evidences that this therapy had saved some people's life. Read the article below.

What’s the News: Striking results in a very small study have got the web a-buzz about a new cancer treatment: With three leukemia patients at the ends of their ropes, scientists modified some of their immune cells with a gene that enabled them to hunt down cancer cells. Remarkably, the treatment wiped out more than two pounds of tumor tissue in each patient, and the three have now been in remission for a year.

This is how Gene Therapy technique is works.

The Human Genome Project is an ambitious plan to map and sequence all 100,000 or so genes found in human DNA. It is a task that has occupied hundreds of scientists in labs around the world since about 1986.

The first human genes to be identified, back in the 1970s, were those connected with diseases such as cystic fibrosis. Part of the motivation to sequence the entire genome (that is, all the genes present in a complete set of chromosomes) was the desire to learn more about the genetic roots of disease and to discover more genes that might be used in gene therapy. In 1971, only 15 human genes had been localized to specific chromosomes, most on the easily identified sex chromosome. By the mid--1990s, researchers had mapped the location of about 2,000 genes--an impressive number, but still only 2% of the entire human genome.

 The Continuing Story of Gene Therapy

The first actual use of gene therapy began in September 1990, with the treatment of a child suffering from a rare genetic immunodeficiency disease caused by the lack of the enzyme adenosine deaminase (ADA). ADA-deficient people have persistent infections and high risk of early cancer, and many die in their first months of life. The much publicized "bubble boy," David, had this disease. David lived for nine years in a plastic chamber to prevent contact with viruses, which his immune system could not combat.

Gene Therapy to Obstruct Disease

The type of gene therapy I've described adds normal genes to a patient to produce something the patient lacks due to genetic defects. Another type of gene therapy works in a different way, by obstructing genes that cause disease. In this strategy, called antisense therapy, scientists add a gene that mirrors the target gene--say, one that causes arthritis. The engineered gene produces RNA that complements the RNA of the troublesome gene, binding onto it and blocking its action. So, for example, if the disease-causing gene produces an unwanted protein, antisense therapy will prevent the protein from being formed. If the gene suppresses the formation of a wanted protein, the therapy will allow for normal protein production.

The Interferon Story

The first big success story in the commercial production of drugs by genetic engineering was interferon, a naturally occurring compound connected with the immune system. Discovered in 1957,interferon is produced by cells in the human body in response to viral attack. It promotes production of a protein that stimulates the immune system, interfering with the spread of infection.

The Importance of Stem Cells

The ideal cells for making copies of introduced genes and spreading them quickly through a patient's bloodstream are the stem cells located in bone marrow. They are rapidly dividing cells that produce all the different types of rd and white blood cells found in: the body, including those that make up the immune system. Because their function is to generate new tells, genetically altered stem cells ear be a source of healthy blood cells for the rest of the patient's lifetime. Unfortunately it is very difficult to isolate stem cells from bone marrow tissue, and attempts to engineer stem cells so far have not resulted in large numbers of genetically altered cells appearing in the blood-stream.

The reason I did choose Gene Therapy as a topic for cancer blog is because my cousin who was 38 years old die a year ago of colon cancer. I wish that he could have the opportunity to try this amazing technique (Gene Therapy)so he could possibly survive, he was the only child that my aunt had and he was the one who provided her support not only emotionally, but financially also.

Web site links.

References.

Grace, Eric S. 1998. "Better health through gene theraphy." Futurist 32, no. 1: 39. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed November 18, 2012).

http://ghr.nlm.nih.gov/handbook/therapy/genetherapy

http://www.genetherapynet.com/what-is-gene-therapy.html

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/08/11/gene-therapy-brings-three-cancer-patients-back-from-deaths-door-what-now/

http://library.thinkquest.org/28599/gene_therapy.htm

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www. sgugenetics.pbworks.com

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