Gene therapy is back. Most of us remember the excitement when it first came out. It was a revolutionary. Simply replace a defective gene with a healthy one so that it doesn’t continue to replicate defective cells.
But there was a problem. At least at first. The vehicle to carry the new genes into the body was a virus known as the adenovirus. But this had potential side effects wherein the virus itself could cause sickness. In fact, in the early trials it caused the death of a 16 year old. This was tragic. Everyone shied away from gene therapy. It wasn’t going to work.
But when new researchers decided to use a less risky virus, actually the adeno-associated virus which is harmless yet still attaches to the adenovirus infections, results turned around. Clinical trials are finding positive results. And without side effects.
I’ve been catching different articles about this on the web recently and had to go back and look. It has tremendous potential. I may be using this material in my next book…
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Joseph "Peppi" Vecchio 