GENE THERAPY SUCCESS IN GERMANY
In the first apparent success for gene therapy in adults, two German men have been cured of an genetic immune deficiency which made them vulnerable to life-threatening infections. A paper in Nature Medicine says that a 16-year-old and a 25-year-old had chronic granulomatous disease resulting from a defective gene on the maternal X chromosome. They were treated at a Frankfurt hospital with transfusions of genetically altered stem cells which carried the effective gene. Within 50 days, the men were free of chronic liver and lung infections.
The researchers warn that the results are still preliminary. “Each gene therapy with stem cells carries a certain risk of leukaemia,” says Christof von Kalle, of the National Centre for Tumour Disease in Heidelberg. Gene therapy, though highly promising, has had a mixed history. In 1999 an American teenager died during a clinical trial. Three years later three French children developed leukaemia after treatment. Since 2002, all gene therapy trials in Germany were banned unless the patients were severely ill, had no other treatment option and were fully informed of the risks.
- How long can you put off seeing the doctor because of lockdowns? - December 3, 2021
- House of Lords debates assisted suicide—again - October 28, 2021
- Spanish government tries to restrict conscientious objection - October 28, 2021
More Stories
Mortality rates for American kids are rising for the first time in 50 years
US President Joe Biden is so concerned about the future of American children that he inserted a mandate for affordable...
Will Pope Francis be composted?
Will Pope Francis be composted instead of buried in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome with his predecessors? It’s unlikely. But...
The virtues and the vices of the outrageous
A Norwegian bioethicist, Anna Smajdor, recently set out a case for “Whole Body Gestational Donation” – using the wombs of...
More than 200 people have been treated with experimental CRISPR therapies
Scientists believe that CRISPR gene editing technologies will transform medicine. But how many people have been treated so far? According...
Asia-Pacific IVF market could reach US$46 billion by 2031
According to a market survey by Allied Market Research, IVF is booming in the Asia-Pacific region. The market size was...
Third global summit on human genome editing: Moving on after the He experiment
The much anticipated Third International Summit on Human Genome Editing was held in London earlier this month to explore the...