Biotechnology:-

BY Neemah
Oct 11, 2015
2 min read

Gene therapy:-

Is a technique for correcting defective genes that are responsible for diseases development. It use genes to treat or prevent disease from it source. The main purpose of gene therapy is to eliminate the disease form it source. Each of us carry about half dozen of defective genes.

Gene therapy for the following disease has been developed:-

1) Cystic Fibrosis.

2)HIV infections.

3)Malignant melanoma.

4) Kidney cancer.

5)Gaucher's diseases.

6)Breast Cancer.

7)Lung cancer.

How does it work:-

Well genes are inserted to the body using vectors. The most common vector is VIRUS. But the following are other vectors that has been used:-

There are two genotype methods:-

1) Ex Vivo. (Outside of the oganism)

2)In Vivo. (Inside of the organism)

But, before inserting any vector into you body they need to know the followings:-

-The fault gene that cause a specific disease must be identified.

-The location of the affected cell must be pinpointed.

-Health vision of the gene must be available.

-Health vision must delivered to the cell.

Side effects of gene therapy.

1)Headache.

2)Nausea.

3)Hair loss.

4)Skin irritation.

5)Leukemia

6) Other Physical effects

Should we keep researching about gene therapy?

Yes, in my opinion gene therapy is a good and easy way to treat disease even though it has some failures. By using gene therapy now we can treat people who have hereditary blindness,Immune Deficiencies, Hemophilia, Fat metabolism disorder, cancer, Parkinson's disease, Blood disease and Bubble Boy Disease (SCID).

Hereditary Blindness:-

Hereditary blindness can pass from generation to another through genes and chromosones. The treatment aimed to get the gene therapy into the cells in the retina of the eye without causing damage. After six months, however, the patients showed improvements in their vision in dim light and two of the first six patients enrolled were able to read more lines on the eye chart.

The results surpassed the expectations of the researchers leading the study from Oxford University and Imperial College London.

Professor Miguel Seabra, whose research at Imperial College London identified the protein involved in choroideremia, says: “My team has spent 20 years trying to understand choroideraemia and develop a cure, so to finally see the rewards reaching patients is extremely gratifying, both for us and the families who supported our research.”

A total of nine patients have now had one eye treated with the gene therapy in operations at the Oxford Eye Hospital, part of the Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust. The therapy is given in one eye to allow comparison with progression of the disease in the other eye.