Question

In the future, genetic therapies may be used to prevent, treat, or cure certain inherited disorders in humans. Justify the statement with a suitable example.

Answer 1

1. Gene therapy is a collection of methods that allows correction of a gene defect that has been diagnosed in a child/embryo. Here genes are inserted into a person’s cells and tissues to treat a disease.
2. Correction of a genetic defect involves delivery of a normal gene into the individual or embryo to take over the function of and compensate for the non-functional gene.
3. The first clinical gene therapy was given in 1990 to a 4-year-old girl with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency. This enzyme is crucial for the immune system to function.
4. The disorder is caused due to the deletion of the gene for adenosine deaminase.
5. In some children ADA deficiency can be cured by bone marrow transplantation; in others it can be treated by enzyme replacement therapy, in which functional ADA is given to the patient by injection.
6. But the problem with both of these approaches is that they are not completely curative.
7. As a first step towards gene therapy, lymphocytes from the blood of the patient are grown in a culture outside the body.
8. A functional ADA cDNA (using a retroviral vector) is then introduced into these lymphocytes, which are subsequently returned to the patient.
9. However, as these cells are not immortal, the patient requires periodic infusion of such genetically engineered lymphocytes.
10. However, if the gene isolate from marrow cells producing ADA is introduced into cells at early embryonic stages, it could be a permanent cure.