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4 Comments
- inactive, on 05/24/2008, -0/+5I love how Scientific American takes very difficult topics like this and makes it very understandable to everyone. This really game me a better understanding of gene therapy and the methods that are employed.
- badmephisto, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1stop with the "playing god" *****. Even if God exists, I don't see a copyright anywhere for human genes that says they belong to god. And I am not aware of a commandment that says "Thou shalt not use viruses to carry genetic material into thy genes".
- upick, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1Man this article is scary because we're now like playing God. Altering / fixing your gene's ... we could most likley alter our genes one day so we can have super human power... hmmmm like Wolverine.. that would be nice
- maheshee11, on 05/25/2008, -0/+1From the article,
"The treatment, which was first tested in humans in 1990, can be performed inside or outside of the body. When it’s done inside the body, doctors may inject the virus carrying the gene in question directly into the part of the body that has defective cells....
"Out-of-the-body gene therapy has already been used to treat severe combined immunodeficiency—also referred to as SCID or boy-in-the-bubble syndrome—where patients are unable to fight infection and die in childhood....
"A risk involved with retroviruses is that they may stitch their gene anywhere into DNA, disrupting other genes and causing leukemia. Unfortunately, five of the 30 children treated for SCID have experienced this complication; four of those five, however, have beaten the cancer. Researchers are now designing delivery systems that will carry a much lower risk of causing this condition."
Read more about gene therapy here,
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome ...
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