Gene Therapy (ADA-SCID)

171 Words1 Page
bulb-icon

Recommended: Conclusion on gene therapy

Genes are what keep your DNA, which is a genetic code that controls how you look and the way your body works (“What is Gene Therapy”). Each person has two copies of each gene, one passed down from mum and the other from dad (“What Is a Gene?”). However sometimes certain genes may become mutated or there are too many or too little of that gene and that may cause disorders; ADA-SCID is an example of such a disorder. ADA, adenosine deaminase deficiency, is one of the forms of SCID, severe combined immunodeficiency, which weakens the patient’s immune system. ADA-SCID has a few forms of treatment but one of the most promising ones is gene therapy. Gene therapy is a process that can manipulate one’s genes to cure a disease. Gene therapy has both

Show More
Related

  • Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis

    1729 Words  | 4 Pages

    Gene therapy is the application of the technique where the defect-causing "bad" genes are replaced by correct "good" genes. The idea of gene therapy is to treat the disease by correcting the "bad" DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) rather than the current me thod of providing drugs, or proteins not produced by the defective gene. Gene therapy addresses the problem first hand by directly working with the genetic information causing the disease. From the book Shaping Genes, Dr. Darryl Macer says "It is like f ixing a hole in the bucket, rather than trying to mop up the leaking water." There are two kinds of gene therapy, somatic cell gene therapy and germline gene therapy.

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy Focusing on Hemophilia

    814 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gene therapy is reinserting certain genes that helps deal with genetic diseases. There are three basic forms of this gene therapy. The first is Gene Inactivation Therapy in which the transferred gene neutralizes the proteins and evens out the amount or rids of the defective proteins. Another type is Gene Augmentation Therapy where the original form of the gene or the normal form of the gene is inserted into one of the cell’s chromosomes. This procedure is used normally when a gene with little activity or a deleted gene is the cause for the genetic disease. The third type of gene therapy is Gene Replacement Therapy. This form is used when the genetic disease involved specific genes that are necessary for proper functioning. The normal gene being put in place of the mutant gene accomplishes this form of gene therapy.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Cancer And Gene Therapy

    2435 Words  | 5 Pages

    It was in the 1980’s that scientist began looking at alternative ways of treatments, one is gene therapy. Scientist would insert human genes into a bacteria cell. Then the bacteria cell would transcribe and translate the information into a protein. Once that is done the scientist would then introduce the protein into human cells. Gene therapy can be simply viewed as inserting bits of foreign DNA into a patient’s tissue in hope...

    Read More

  • Pros And Cons Of Human Gene Therapy

    618 Words  | 2 Pages

    Human gene therapy is a method used in the medical field that treats diseases at a molecular level, by solving the source of the problem; our genes. Today, diseases and disorders are commonly treated by solving the symptoms, the surface of the problem. Many disorders and diseases are caused by defective proteins and within those defective proteins are damaged and defective genes. These defective genes can be treated through gene therapy. Gene therapy is not new and has been developed and improved by researchers for the past couple years. Being an experimental technique, gene therapy also has its pros and cons, but so far is showing positive and rising success rates.

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy In Aldous Huxley's Brave New World

    1010 Words  | 3 Pages

    A molecular biologist by the name of James Watson once said, “we used to think that the fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our genes.” The Oxford Dictionary defines gene therapy as the transplantation of normal genes into cells in place of missing or defective ones in order to correct genetic disorders. Gene therapy has the ability to prevent, treat, and even cure diseases by replacing a faulty gene with a stable, healthy one (American Medical Association). Aldous Huxley’s, Brave New World, relates to gene therapy because they program each embryo with how they should live. This essay will first talk about why gene therapy is done and how it works.

    Read More

  • The Incredible Potential of Gene Therapy

    1153 Words  | 3 Pages

    In the modern world humans have been able to design and create nearly anything, most to aid us in our daily lives and improve our standard of living. It is only inevitable that eventually humans would take our superior knowledge and skill to manipulate life itself and change our genome to produce a healthier and even more superior human standard of life. In recent years discussion about gene therapy has changed into a promising possibility to treat many of our common human diseases and disorders. Although gene therapy might be the answer to many problems, it has been met with a number of logistical and ethical hardships. With the prospect of being a treatment for inherited genetic disorders, cancers, and viral infections, gene therapy seems like the logical fix-it-all bandage that many people would benefit from.

    Read More

  • Ethics of Human Gene Therapy

    2330 Words  | 5 Pages

    Although the highly technical aspects of human gene therapy are somewhat complex, the basic concept is very straight forward. The goal of gene therapy is to correct mistakes that have occurred within the genetic material, or DNA, of the living cell. In very simple terms, DNA is often thought of as the "language" of the biological functioning of organisms. This language is organized by letters (nucleotide pairs), words (codons), sentences (genes), and books (genomes). Before being able to repair the damaged or defective genetic material, the location of the gene or genes causing the dysfunction in the individual must be determined.

    Read More

  • The Debate Over Gene Therapy

    754 Words  | 2 Pages

    Gene therapy gives people who suffer from genetic diseases a chance to lead a normal life. Dangerous diseases, such as AIDS, SCID, Thalassemia and ADA can be cured successfully. In September 5, 2006, two people with advanced melanoma received Gene therapy and they got recovery soon. This is a breakthrough in cancer gene therapy. Gene therapy uses patients own cells to cure diseases, and, therefore, no rejection to their bodies. Furthermore, patients could get permanent cure from gene therapy without recurrence.

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy Essay

    1260 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gene therapy focuses on the replacement of defective genes with modified functioning genes. Many diseases are caused by a defective gene meaning the body is incapable of producing essential proteins or enzymes. In its simplest form, gene therapy aims to identify the defective gene and fix this gene with the replacement of a normal gene (Senn).

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy And Genetic Engineering Essay

    573 Words  | 2 Pages

    "The aim is to decrease the fear of a brave new world and to encourage people to be more proactive about their health. It [Gene therapy] will help humans become better physically and even mentally and extend human life. It is the future” (Hulbert). Dr. Hulbert, a genetic engineer, couldn’t be anymore right; more time, money, and research needs to be put into gene therapy and genetic engineering, since it can cure certain illness and diseases that are incurable with modern medicine, has fewer side-effects than conventional drugs or surgery, and allows humans to be stronger physically and mentally at birth. Gene therapy or genetic engineering is the development and application of scientific methods, procedures, and technologies that permit direct manipulation of genetic material in order to alter the hereditary traits of a cell, organism, or population (NIH). It essentially means that we can change DNA to make an organism better. Genetic engineering is used with animals and plants every day; for example with genetic...

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy

    543 Words  | 2 Pages

    Every year, the rate of mortality increasing because most diseases may lead to death if not treated early. One of the methods that can be used to cure some diseases is by using the treatment known as gene therapy. Based on Pruitt’s (2008) study, numbers of inherited and acquired diseases were reduced since gene therapy has the ability to provide new treatments to cure them. According to Shi and Zou (2008), gene therapy is defined as expression of protein or interrupts the synthesis of protein in cell by transferring the genetic material into a host in order to treat or prevent a disease. Besides that, Kelly (2007) stated that an “abnormal” hereditary disease-causing gene in an individual’s cells and tissues is treated and used gene therapy by to replace them with a “normal” gene. Around 1970’s, idea to use “genes” as “drugs” for human therapy was originally from United States (Giacca, 2010). Moreover, there are some objectives in using the gene therapy as a treatment. First, gene therapy is used to cure or slow the progression of disease by introducing the genetic material into target cells and next objective is to aim at the direct correction of endogenous genetic defects by delivered some additional copies of a gene (Pruitt, 2008; Giacca, 2010). Furthermore, Yadav and Tyagi (2008) found that there are two types of gene therapy which are germline gene therapy and somatic cell therapy. As stated by Shi and Zou (2008), therapy that involved modification of any cells in a patient’s body is called as somatic cell gene therapy while germ line gene therapy is therapy that involved modifying of human eggs or sperms that pass genes on to future generations. Other than that, animal tissue culture is used to test the effective...

    Read More

  • The Dangers Of Gene Therapy And The Effects Of Gene Therapy

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gene therapy is the therapeutic delivery of nucleic acid into a patient’s cells as a drug to treat diseases such as Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) and Adenosine Deaminase Deficiency (ADA) and possibly cancer as well. It was first researched in 1985

    Read More

  • Gene Therapy

    1406 Words  | 3 Pages

    Gene therapy is a method used by doctors that ‘uses genes as medicine’. It repairs faulty or damaged gene copies by transferring a therapeutic or working gene into specific parts of faulty gene copy. This means that gene therapy can be used to replace a faulty gene or to introduce a new gene whose function is to modify the clinical course of a condition or to cure a problem in the gene (Refer to image 2). Image 1 shows how gene therapy is completed using an adenovirus vector while image 2 explains the method of gene therapy and shows how cells are removed, altered and injected back into the patient. Gene therapy has potential to treat and cure many medical conditions such as various types of cancer, degenerative diseases and viral infections such as AIDS. Research into gene therapy still needs to be done before this approach to the treatment of certain conditions will realise its full potential. Trials are being conducted in the United States and Europe and a modest number initiated in other countries, including Australia. The majority of these trials are focussing on treating acquired conditions such as cancer (European Society of Gene & Cell therapy, 2011).

    Read More

  • Debate on Gene Therapy

    852 Words  | 2 Pages

    Genes are made of DNA – the code of life (Gene Therapy- The Great Debate!). The changes in genes may cause serious problems, which we called genetic disorder. In theory, the only method to cure genetic disorders is gene therapy, which basically means the replacement of genes in order to correct the loss or change in people’s DNA. Although gene therapy gives patients with genetic disorders a permanent cure, it is controversial because it has safety and efficacy problems, and raises ethical issues.

    Read More

  • Position Paper: Gene Therapy in Humans

    1397 Words  | 3 Pages

    Position Paper: Gene Therapy in Humans. Advancements in science and medicine are usually accompanied by a myriad of ethical and moral implications. The fairly recent advancement in genetics, called gene therapy, is no exception to the baggage of polarizing views that come with new technology. Gene therapy is an extremely hot topic in both the scientific world and everyday life. New technology, discoveries, and breakthroughs are rapidly occurring in the field every day.

    Read More

More about Gene Therapy (ADA-SCID)

Open Document