Biology News Net - Gene Therapy

Gene therapy involving antibiotics may help patients with Usher syndrome

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 21:30:15 -0500

A new approach to treating vision loss caused by Type 1 Usher syndrome (USH1), the most common condition affecting both sight and hearing, will be unveiled by a scientist at the annual conference of the European Society of Human Genetics tomorrow (Tuesday 3 June). Ms Annie Rebibo Sabbah, from the Genetics Department of the Rappaport Faculty of Medicine, Technion, Haifa, Israel, will tell the conference that preliminary results using a class of drugs called aminoglycosides, commonly used as antibiotics, had had promising effects in vitro and in cell culture.

Therapeutic cloning treats Parkinson's disease in mice

Sun, 23 Mar 2008 17:02:01 -0500

Research led by investigators at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) has shown that therapeutic cloning, also known as somatic-cell nuclear transfer (SCNT), can be used to treat Parkinson’s disease in mice. The study’s results are published in the March 23 online edition of the journal Nature Medicine.

Deadly genetic disease prevented before birth in zebrafish

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 22:36:01 -0500

By injecting a customized "genetic patch" into early stage fish embryos, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis were able to correct a genetic mutation so the embryos developed normally.

Gene therapy could save kids from a lifetime of eating cornstarch

Thu, 13 Mar 2008 16:48:25 -0500

A gene therapy treatment that restores a missing liver enzyme in test animals could provide a cure for a rare metabolic disorder in humans, according to Duke University Medical Center researchers.

Gene therapy protocol at UCSD activates immune system in patients with leukemia

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 20:17:20 -0500

A research team at the Moores Cancer Center at University of California, San Diego (UCSD) reports that patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) who were treated with a gene therapy protocol began making antibodies that reacted against their own leukemia cells. The study will be published on line the week of February 11-15 in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

The RNA drug revolution -- a new approach to gene therapy

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 16:39:09 -0500

RNA interference (RNAi) represents an innovative new strategy for using small RNA molecules to silence specific genes associated with disease processes, and a series of review articles describing the state-of-the-art and potential therapeutic applications of RNAi and microRNAs will begin with two review papers in the January 2008 issue (Volume 19, Number 1) of Human Gene Therapy, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The papers are available free online.

Gene dose affects tumor growth

Thu, 03 Jan 2008 14:06:55 -0500

Researchers at Johns Hopkins and Ohio State University have found that the number of copies of a particular gene can affect the severity of colon cancer in a mouse model. Publishing in the Jan. 3 issue of Nature, the research team describes how trisomy 21, or Down syndrome in humans, can repress tumor growth.

Reprogrammed adult cells treat sickle-cell anemia in mice

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:35:38 -0500

Mice with a human sickle-cell anemia disease trait have been treated successfully in a process that begins by directly reprogramming their own cells to an embryonic-stem-cell-like state, without the use of eggs. This is the first proof-of-principle of therapeutic application in mice of directly reprogrammed “induced pluripotent stem” (IPS) cells, which recently have been derived in mice as well as humans.

Gene therapy safety trial for childhood blindness under way

Tue, 20 Nov 2007 20:46:18 -0500

Three decades have passed since gene therapy pioneer William W. Hauswirth, Ph.D., and his colleagues at the University of Florida began work on a virus that could safely deliver corrective genes into living animals.

Intravenous gene therapy protects normal tissue of mice during whole-body radiation

Sun, 28 Oct 2007 18:27:01 -0500

Gene therapy administered intravenously could be an effective agent to protect vital organs and tissues from the effects of ionizing radiation in the event of large-scale exposure from a radiological or nuclear bomb, according to an animal study presented today by University of Pittsburgh researchers at the 49th annual meeting of the American Society for Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology (ASTRO) in Los Angeles.