3 ms·
I'm glad this little girl can hear. But I don't understand how this can possibly work. We can read: > “So basically, we find the inner ear and we open the in
by verisimi 2y ago
I'm glad this little girl can hear. But I don't understand how this can possibly work.
We can read:
> “So basically, we find the inner ear and we open the inner ear and infuse the treatment, in this particular case using a catheter, over 16 minutes,” he said.
Genes are in cells, right? It seems like what is being said is that this therapy goes in and alters all the cells. The altered cells then keep the alteration. Whatever it is that creates these cells, also knows to create this new type of cell - cos this is not an ongoing treatment.
Anyway explaining whatever technical thing is going on here with the word 'infuse' is a bit simplistic. Can we not have some more detailed information?
- bglazer 2y agoIt's a virus that adds a bit of genetic code to cells in the ear. The new genetic code is the instructions for the protein that is broken in the the little girl (and other similar patients). The cell can then use the newly introduced DNA to make a protein. This protein restores the link between the auditory sensory cells and the auditory nerve cells. Regarding the word "infused", the viral particles are carried in an aqueous solution into the inner ear. The viral particles then do their work on the cells that the solution flows over. So it is literally infused, although that sort of elides the bit about the virus actually delivering the active bit of the treatment: the new gene.
- verisimi 2y agoThanks for your answer. Yes, I get that bit you describe, more or less. But also cells die - all cells are new in the human body after 7 years, right? (Or are we saying ear cells don't?) New cells are produced. Whatever creates new ear cells, needs to know to produce them with the update. I know that marrow creates blood cells.... and I'm not sure how replacement ear cells are created, but if it were something like marrow, this creating piece too that makes new cells also needs to be updated, right? I have other questions too - eg does this viral deployment really impact every cell? You'd think that the ones nearest would get done repeatedly, whereas those that are less local would never be updated. Also, if this infusion were to be near reproductive cells, would it also update those cells, so that cells used is reproduction would be updated, and the line would be permanently edited?