Cancer and Tumor growths

HIV

Diabetes

So many diseases that have defied oral medication and medical surgery, but a gene transplant could change all that

Genes contain your DNA — the code that controls much of your body’s form and function from growth to regulating your body systems.

Your genes can mutate and get damaged due to poor diet, hereditary, virus infection and environmental factors .

These damaged Genes can cause incurable illnesses like  cystic fibrosis, cancer, heart diseases and leukemia.

 

Gene Therapy & how it works

Picture cancerous cells that spread cancer.  it keeps mutating and multiplying till it  kills the body.

What if  the usual  cancer treatments like chemotherapy and surgeries was ignored and rather a new cell that destroys cancer is inserted into the body.

This new cell mutates and multiplies destroying cancer cells in its path.

its not science fiction, welcome to the growing  age of Gene Therapy, the insertion of a new genetic cell into patients body to replace ,inhibit or kill  a diseased cell.

By the way, this new genetic material used to cure illness is now part of your DNA and can be transferred to your kids.

 

 Gene Therapy is mostly inserted into the body through a virus (for now)

But i mean if a patient has cancer, he cant be so worried about Rota-virus for a cure (LOL)

on a serious note,  Curative Cells capable of fighting diseases cannot survive if its directly inserted into the blood stream; rather it needs a host virus.

viruses as we know are bad guests in the body.  They attack their hosts and introduce their genetic material into the host cell  thereby infecting more cells in the body

Viruses like this could be used as vehicles to carry ‘good’ Genes into a human cell. First, a scientist would remove the genes in the virus that cause disease and replace with a curative cell .

To insert curative genes, it is mixed with blood drawn from the patients body

The patients blood+curative new cell is then  exposed to a virus like Rota-virus.

This new mixture is inserted back into the body =Patients blood + curative Cells + Virus

 

 

Risks associated with gene therapy

1. unwanted immune system reaction.your body’s immune system may see the newly introduced viruses as intruders and attack them. this may cause inflammation and, in severe cases, organ failure.
2. targeting the wrong cells.because viruses can affect more than one type of cells, it’s possible that the altered viruses may infect additional cells — not just the targeted cells containing mutated genes. if this happens, healthy cells may be damaged, causing other illness or diseases.
3. infection caused by the virus.it’s possible that once introduced into the body, the viruses may recover their original ability to cause disease.

 

where to get gene therapy:

Currently, the only way for you to receive gene therapy is to participate in a clinical trial in the United states of America.

Clinical trials are research studies that help doctors determine whether a gene therapy approach is safe for people. they also help doctors understand the effects of gene therapy on the body.

your specific procedure will depend on the disease you have and the type of gene therapy being used.

 

Limitations to finalize commercial productions

Government Regulations

Extremely expensive to make and purchase ( a patient in Germany was successfully treated last year for about 1 million dollars

 

Companies working to commercialize the product

1. Bluebird bio, is in talks with UK medicine regulators about a potential launch of its pioneering range of gene therapies for rare diseases.
2. Novartis
3. Kite pharmaceuticals
4. Glaskosmith Kline  (GSK)
5. Unicure

 

Its note worthy that Gene therapy has been around for sometime with limited success. but like everything else that fails, its just a step closer to success.

Watch this space, Gene therapy is the future of Pharmaceuticals