Gene therapy for foetuses hope

The work is controversial not just because of the ethics but also safety concerns. A few years ago France and the US suspended gene therapy trials after a child who had undergone treatment at the age of three developed cancer. The British Society for Gene Therapy heard how trials were progressing. Gene therapy is a way of treating disease by either replacing damaged or abnormal genes with normal ones or by providing new genetic instructions to help fight disease. These therapeutic genes can be transferred into the patient attached to a non-threatening virus or similar carrier "vector" which is injected it into the body. Scientists have already successfully treated patients with haemophilia and infants with rare "bubbly boy" disease, who have no immune system, using gene therapy. But gene therapy in children and adults has faced problems... Whole article: "news.bbc.co.uk":[ news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/6458425.stm]

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