Gene Therapy Cure

Medicine researchers are working tirelessly to find out new ways to eradicate illnesses. One of the most current researches is the cure via gene therapy. Gene therapy is the procedure in which a gene is inserted into the patient’s cell and tissues, which replaces the deleterious mutant allele with a functional one. Although there is always room for improvement, but the results of the therapy are promising.

Recently, researchers in Italy implanted mutated gene (which will eliminate the diseases gene) in children having diseases like Metachromatic Leukodystrophy and Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome. In  metachromatic leukodystrophy, the babies appear healthy, but their development starts to reverse early in their childhood because parts of their brain is destroyed. While in Wiskott-Aldrich Syndrome, it leads to a faulty immune system.

Bone marrow stem cells of the patient are taken and are infused with the ‘virus’ carrying the snippets of DNA with the correct information and instructions. The researchers chose three children and injected the ‘virus’, before their disease started to appear. The result was very optimistic. The children were in better condition and wanted to carry on with their normal lives. The patients had to monitor more keenly, as compared to normal treatment patients but the outcome was very positive. The success of the gene therapy, assures that other diseases can be treated in the same manner.

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