3 ms·
Gene therapy for metastatic melanoma in mice produces complete remission
- MikeCapone 16y ago"Indiana University School of Medicine researchers used a modified lentivirus to introduce a potent anti-melanoma T cell receptor gene into the hematopoietic stem cells of mice. Hematopoietic stem cells are the bone marrow cells that produce all blood and immune system cells." Has this type of gene therapy ever been tried on humans? Any successes so far (not necessarily in curing something, but just in using a virus to carry genetic information)?
- frisco 16y agoYes: gene therapy has been used investigationally since the 90s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy). It has a bad tendency to kill human patients or cause cancer, but it's very widespread in research. For example, optogenetics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optogenetics) uses lentivirii to insert DNA into specific classes of neurons to get them to express a protein.
- nitrogen 16y agoCould bone marrow transplants be considered a form of shotgun gene therapy?
- nitrogen 16y agoThis is excellent news. I knew someone who died prematurely from metastatic melanoma. I hope these results can be extended to human use, so that some day others don't have to suffer the same fate, hopefully within my lifetime.