which of the following diseases has gene therapy been successful in curing course hero

by Lydia Kovacek I 9 min read

Gene therapies are being used to treat a small number of diseases, including an eye disorder called Leber congenital amaurosis and a muscle disorder called spinal muscular atrophy. Many more gene therapies are undergoing research to make sure that they will be safe and effective.

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What diseases can gene therapy be used to treat?

Question Which of the following diseases has gene therapy been successful in curing? Selected Answer: SCID S Correct Answer: SCID S

What was the first clinical trial to use gene therapy?

Cancer has been, from the beginning, a target of intense research for gene therapy approaches. Currently, more than 60% of all on-going clinical gene therapy trials worldwide are targeting cancer. Indeed, there is a clear unmet medical need for …

Is gene therapy the future of cancer?

Gene therapy can be used to modify cells inside or outside the body. When it’s done inside the body, a doctor will inject the vector carrying the gene directly into the part of the body that has ...

What are the different approaches to gene therapy?

Gene Therapy for Cystic Fibrosis. Cystic fibrosis is caused by mutations in the generesponsible for producing the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) protein. For this reason, scientists are exploring ways to provide a correct …

What disease has gene therapy been successful in curing?

Gene therapy replaces a faulty gene or adds a new gene in an attempt to cure disease or improve your body's ability to fight disease. Gene therapy holds promise for treating a wide range of diseases, such as cancer, cystic fibrosis, heart disease, diabetes, hemophilia and AIDS.

When was gene therapy successful?

Gene-fixing treatments have now cured a number of patients with cancer and rare diseases. It was a notable year for gene therapy. The first such treatments in the U.S. came to market this year after winning approval from the Food and Drug Administration.Jan 3, 2018

What are some success stories of gene therapy?

In 1990, 4-year-old Ashanthi de Silva became the first gene therapy success story. She was born with a severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) due to lack of the enzyme adenosine deaminase (ADA). Without ADA, her T cells died off, leaving her unable to fight infections.Dec 22, 2020

What are the types of gene therapy used to treat diseases?

There are two basic types of gene therapy that include germline therapy and somatic gene therapy.Mar 18, 2021

Has gene therapy been successful for CF?

The study indicated that the CF gene therapy was safe and resulted in a small improvement in lung function. Lung function includes how well air moves in and out, and how well the lungs bring in oxygen and blow out carbon dioxide.

Is gene therapy safe to cure genetic disorders?

Because gene therapy techniques are relatively new, some risks may be unpredictable; however, medical researchers, institutions, and regulatory agencies are working to ensure that gene therapy research, clinical trials, and approved treatments are as safe as possible.Feb 28, 2022

What is the success rate of gene therapy?

The majority of gene therapy clinical trials targeted cancer diseases (64.41%). 52% of Phase II/III trials, 66% of the Phase III trials and all the Phase IV trials were for gene therapies targeting cancers (Table 2).

Is gene therapy a permanent cure?

Gene therapy offers the possibility of a permanent cure for any of the more than 10,000 human diseases caused by a defect in a single gene. Among these diseases, the hemophilias represent an ideal target, and studies in both animals and humans have provided evidence that a permanent cure for hemophilia is within reach.

What are the 3 types of gene therapy?

Gene therapy techniquesGene augmentation therapy.Gene inhibition therapy.Killing of specific cells.Jul 21, 2021

What are the two types of gene therapy treatment?

There are two types of gene therapy treatment: Somatic cell gene therapy and germline therapy. Somatic cell gene therapy involves obtaining blood cells from a person with a genetic disease and then introducing a normal gene into the defective cell (Coutts, 1998).

How are viruses used for gene therapy?

Certain viruses are used as vectors because they can deliver the material by infecting the cell. The viruses are modified so they can't cause disease when used in people. Some types of virus, such as retroviruses, integrate their genetic material (including the new gene) into a chromosome in the human cell.

What is gene therapy?

In gene therapy that is used to modify cells outside of the body, blood, bone marrow, or another tissue can be taken from a patient, and specific types of cells can be separated out in the lab.

How many gene therapy products are there?

Since August 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved three gene therapy products, the first of their kind. Two of them reprogram a patient’s own cells to attack a deadly cancer, and the most recent approved product targets a disease caused by mutations in a specific gene.

How do scientists insert new genes into cells?

In order to insert new genes directly into cells, scientists use a vehicle called a “vector” which is genetically engineered to deliver the gene.

What are the functions of genes in the body?

Within our cells there are thousands of genes that provide the information for the production of specific proteins and enzymes that make muscles, bones, and blood, which in turn support most of our body’s functions, such as digestion, making energy, and growing .

Can a gene change during adult life?

Sometimes the whole or part of a gene is defective or missing from birth, or a gene can change or mutate during adult life. Any of these variations can disrupt how proteins are made, which can contribute to health problems or diseases. In gene therapy, scientists can do one of several things depending on the problem that is present.

How did gene therapy begin?

The birth of gene therapy as a therapeutic avenue began with the repurposing of viruses for transgene delivery to patients with genetic diseases. Gene therapy enjoyed an initial phase of excitement, until the recognition of immediate and delayed adverse effects resulted in death and caused a major setback. More recently, the discovery and development of CRISPR/Cas9 has re-opened a door for gene therapy and changed the way scientists can approach a genetic aberration—by fixing a non-functional gene rather than replacing it entirely, or by disrupting an aberrant pathogenic gene. CRISPR/Cas9 provides extensive opportunities for programmable gene editing and can become a powerful asset for modern medicine. However, lessons learned from traditional gene therapy should prompt greater caution in moving forward with CRISPR systems to avoid adverse events and setbacks to the development of what may be a unique clinically beneficial technology. A failure to take these lessons into account may provoke further backlash against CRISPR/Cas9 development and slow down progression toward attaining potentially curative gene editing technologies.

What is CRISPR in gene therapy?

The discovery of Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) and CRISPR-associated (Cas) proteins has expanded the applications of genetic research in thousands of laboratories across the globe and is redefining our approach to gene therapy. Traditional gene therapy has raised some concerns, as its reliance on viral vector delivery of therapeutic transgenes can cause both insertional oncogenesis and immunogenic toxicity. While viral vectors remain a key delivery vehicle, CRISPR technology provides a relatively simple and efficient alternative for site-specific gene editing, obliviating some concerns raised by traditional gene therapy. Although it has apparent advantages, CRISPR/Cas9 brings its own set of limitations which must be addressed for safe and efficient clinical translation. This review focuses on the evolution of gene therapy and the role of CRISPR in shifting the gene therapy paradigm. We review the emerging data of recent gene therapy trials and consider the best strategy to move forward with this powerful but still relatively new technology.

Who is CR consulted with?

CR has consulted regarding oncology drug development with AbbVie, Amgen, Ascentage, Astra Zeneca , Celgene, Daiichi Sankyo, Genentech/Roche, Ipsen, Loxo, and Pharmar, and is on the scientific advisory boards of Harpoon Therapeutics and Bridge Medicines. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

What is the CRISPR locus?

The bacterial CRISPR locus was first described by Francisco Mojica ( 23) and later identified as a key element in the adaptive immune system in prokaryotes ( 24 ). The locus consists of snippets of viral or plasmid DNA that previously infected the microbe (later termed “spacers”), which were found between an array of short palindromic repeat sequences. Later, Alexander Bolotin discovered the Cas9 protein in Streptococcus thermophilus, which unlike other known Cas genes, Cas9 was a large gene that encoded for a single-effector protein with nuclease activity ( 25 ). They further noted a common sequence in the target DNA adjacent to the spacer, later known as the protospacer adjacent motif (PAM)—the sequence needed for Cas9 to recognize and bind its target DNA ( 25 ). Later studies reported that spacers were transcribed to CRISPR RNAs (crRNAs) that guide the Cas proteins to the target site of DNA ( 26 ). Following studies discovered the trans-activating CRISPR RNA (tracrRNA), which forms a duplex with crRNA that together guide Cas9 to its target DNA ( 27 ). The potential use of this system was simplified by introducing a synthetic combined crRNA and tracrRNA construct called a single-guide RNA (sgRNA) ( 28 ). This was followed by studies demonstrating successful genome editing by CRISPR/Cas9 in mammalian cells, thereby opening the possibility of implementing CRISPR/Cas9 in gene therapy ( 29) ( Figure 1 ).

Does CRISPR cause apoptosis?

CRISPR- induced DSBs often trigger apoptosis rather than the intended gene edit ( 68 ). Further safety concerns were revealed when using this tool in human pluripotent stem cells (hPSCs) which demonstrated that p53 activation in response to the toxic DSBs introduced by CRISPR often triggers subsequent apoptosis ( 69 ). Thus, successful CRISPR edits are more likely to occur in p53 suppressed cells, resulting in a bias toward selection for oncogenic cell survival ( 70 ). In addition, large deletions spanning kilobases and complex rearrangements as unintended consequences of on-target activity have been reported in several instances ( 71, 72 ), highlighting a major safety issue for clinical applications of DSB-inducing CRISPR therapy. Other variations of Cas9, such as catalytically inactive endonuclease dead Cas9 (dCas9) in which the nuclease domains are deactivated, may provide therapeutic utility while mitigating the risks of DSBs ( 73 ). dCas9 can transiently manipulate expression of specific genes without introducing DSBs through fusion of transcriptional activating or repressing domains or proteins to the DNA-binding effector ( 74 ). Other variants such as Cas9n can also be considered, which induces SSBs rather than DSBs. Further modifications of these Cas9 variants has led to the development of base editors and prime editors, a key innovation for safe therapeutic application of CRISPR technology (see Precision Gene Editing With CRISPR section).

What is the purpose of CRISPR/CAS9?

CRISPR/Cas9 is a simple two-component system used for effective targeted gene editing. The first component is the single-effector Cas9 protein, which contains the endonuclease domains RuvC and HNH. RuvC cleaves the DNA strand non-complementary to the spacer sequence and HNH cleaves the complementary strand. Together, these domains generate double-stranded breaks (DSBs) in the target DNA. The second component of effective targeted gene editing is a single guide RNA (sgRNA) carrying a scaffold sequence which enables its anchoring to Cas9 and a 20 base pair spacer sequence complementary to the target gene and adjacent to the PAM sequence. This sgRNA guides the CRISPR/Cas9 complex to its intended genomic location. The editing system then relies on either of two endogenous DNA repair pathways: non-homologous end-joining (NHEJ) or homology-directed repair (HDR) ( Figure 2 ). NHEJ occurs much more frequently in most cell types and involves random insertion and deletion of base pairs, or indels, at the cut site. This error-prone mechanism usually results in frameshift mutations, often creating a premature stop codon and/or a non-functional polypeptide. This pathway has been particularly useful in genetic knock-out experiments and functional genomic CRISPR screens, but it can also be useful in the clinic in the context where gene disruption provides a therapeutic opportunity. The other pathway, which is especially appealing to exploit for clinical purposes, is the error-free HDR pathway. This pathway involves using the homologous region of the unedited DNA strand as a template to correct the damaged DNA, resulting in error-free repair. Experimentally, this pathway can be exploited by providing an exogenous donor template with the CRISPR/Cas9 machinery to facilitate the desired edit into the genome ( 30 ).

Is CRISPR in vivo or in vivo?

An exciting step forward with CRISPR gene therapy has been recently launched with a clinical trial using in vivo delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 for the first time in patients. While in vivo editing has been largely limited by inadequate accessibility to the target tissue, a few organs, such as the eye, are accessible. Leber congenital amaurosis (LCA) is a debilitating monogenic disease that results in childhood blindness caused by a bi-allelic loss-of-function mutation in the CEP290 gene, with no treatment options. This therapy, named EDIT-101, delivers CRISPR/Cas9 directly into the retina of LCA patients specifically with the intronic IVS26 mutation, which drives aberrant splicing resulting in a non-functional protein. The therapy uses an AAV5 vector to deliver nucleic acid instructions for Staphylococcus aureus Cas9 and two guides targeting the ends of the CEP290 locus containing the IVS26 mutation. The DSB induced by Cas9 and both guides result in either a deletion or inversion of the IVS26 intronic region, thus preventing the aberrant splicing caused by the genetic mutation and enabling subsequent translation of the functional protein ( 107 ). Potential immunotoxicity or OTEs arising from nucleic acid viral delivery will have to be closely monitored. Nonetheless, a possibly curative medicine for genetic blindness using an in vivo approach marks an important advancement for CRISPR gene therapy.

What is the tumor suppressor gene?

Inserting tumor suppressor genes to immunotherapy, oncolytic virotherapy and gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy are different strategies that have been used to treat different types of cancers. The p53, a commonly transferred tumor suppressor gene, is a key player in cancer treating efforts.

When was recombinant DNA first used?

The first recombinant DNA (rDNA) molecules were generated in 1973 by Paul Berg, Herbert Boyer, Annie Chang, and Stanley Cohen of Stanford University and University of California San Francisco. In 1975, during “The Asilomar Conference” regulation and safe use of rDNA technology was discussed.

What is recombinant DNA?

In the past century, the recombinant DNA technology was just an imagination that desirable characteristics can be improved in the living bodies by controlling the expressions of target genes. However, in recent era, this field has demonstrated unique impacts in bringing advancement in human life. By virtue of this technology, crucial proteins ...

How many people die from non-communicable diseases?

Several human related health issues across the globe cause large number of deaths. Approximately 36 million people die each year from noncommunicable and communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer, diabetes, AIDS/HIV, tuberculosis, malaria, and several others according to http://GlobalIssues.org/.

What are the factors that affect human life?

Human life is greatly affected by three factors: deficiency of food, health problems, and environmental issues. Food and health are basic human requirements beside a clean and safe environment. With increasing world's population at a greater rate, human requirements for food are rapidly increasing.

What is the NS gene?

In practical, the NS gene of the influenza virus was replaced with foreign gene, commonly chloramphenicol acetyltransferase gene . Thereafter, the RNA previously recombined is expressed and packaged into virus particles after transfection with purified influenza A virus in the presence of helper virus.

Is Apligraf a biologic?

Its injection (biologic bypass) into a human myocardium cause an increased blood supply to the heart. Apligraf, an FDA approved product, which serves as a recombinant skin replacer, specified for the leg ulcer's treatment and DermaGraft, is effective in the treatment of diabetic ulcers [38–40].

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