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Definition: gene therapy from The Penguin Dictionary of Science

The treatment of disease by the introduction of a functional gene which can be inserted into an embryo or into mature somatic cells where a defect has been identified. For example, treatment is being developed for sufferers of cystic fibrosis, who have a defective gene encoding a chloride ion channel, in which a DNA preparation is inhaled and becomes incorporated into the cells lining the respiratory tract, restoring some degree of normal function to affected cells.


gene therapy

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Medical technique that alters genes inside the body's cells to treat or prevent disease. The main strategies employed in gene therapy are replacing defective genes with healthy versions, rendering defective genes inactive, or introducing new genes into the body to treat disease. Gene therapy researchers aim to develop treatments for genetic diseases such as cystic fibrosis, other diseases such as AIDS, and genetic disorders such as haemophilia. Although gene therapy may cure a patient, it cannot prevent the genetic defect being passed on to any children; germ-line gene therapy is a theoretical modification that would allow the treatment to be hereditary, by modifying genes in eggs and sperm. Gene therapy was first proposed as a method of curing human genetic diseases in 1972. The first human to undergo gene therapy, in 1990, was Ashanti Desilva, a four-year-old US girl suffering from a rare enzyme (adenoise deaminase, or ADA) deficiency that cripples the immune system. Unable to fight…
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In 1971, Australian Nobel laureate Sir F. MacFarlane Burnet thought that gene therapy (introducing genes into body tissue, usually to treat an inherited genetic disorder) looked more and more like a case of the emperor’s new clothes. Ethical issues aside, he believed that practical considerations…
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Full text Article gene therapy

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
the use of genes and the techniques of genetic engineering in the treatment of a genetic disorder or chronic disease. There are many techniques of gene therapy, all of them still in experimental stages. The two basic methods are called in vivo and ex vivo gene therapy. The in vivo method inserts…
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Full text Article Gene Therapy

From Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine
Gene therapy is a rapidly growing field of medicine in which genes are introduced into the body to treat diseases. Genes control heredity and provide the basic biological code for determining a cell's specific functions. Gene therapy seeks to provide genes that correct or supplant the…
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Full text Article Gene Therapy

From Gale Encyclopedia of Nursing and Allied Health
Analysis of DNA structure (JAMES...
Gene therapy is a rapidly growing field of medicine in which genes are introduced into the body to treat diseases. Genomics is the DNA that is found in an organism's total set of genes and is passed on to the offspring as information necessary for survival. Genetics is the study of the patterns of…
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Full text Article gene therapy

From Library of Health and Living: The Encyclopedia of Autoimmune Diseases
An experimental technique that uses genes to treat or prevent disease. In the future, this technique may allow doctors to treat a disorder by inserting a gene into a patient's cells instead of using drugs or surgery. Researchers are testing several approaches to gene therapy, including: replacing a…
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Full text Article Gene Therapy

From The Big Idea: How Breakthroughs of the Past Shape the Future Full text Article Health & Medicine
Date: 1993 Devastating inherited diseases have played a key role in the nascent science of gene therapy, dealing researchers early triumphs—and painful setbacks. In 1990 scientists at Maryland's National Institutes of Health launched gene therapy's first human trial, treating two girls with severe…
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Full text Article gene therapy

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Medical technique that alters genes inside the body's cells to treat or prevent disease. The main strategies employed in gene therapy are replacing defective genes with healthy versions, rendering defective genes inactive, or introducing new genes into the body to treat disease. Gene therapy…
| 560 words
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Genes are like an instruction manual for building and running the body. So why not tackle chronic faults in the body’s functioning by correcting the instructions themselves? It’s a straightforward idea. But given the complexity of human genetics, it’s no easy task. In 1990 scientists at the U.S. …
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Full text Article Gene Therapy

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia with Atlas and Weather Guide
Introduction Some diseases, such as cystic fibrosis, are caused by faulty genes . You cannot cure these diseases with an operation or with antibiotics, though you may be able to use drugs to make the symptoms less unpleasant. The only possible cure would be to replace the faulty genes with correct…
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Full text Article Gene Therapy

From Black's Medical Dictionary, 43rd Edition
The transfer of GENES into a patient to combat the effects of their own abnormal genes which are causing disease(s). The GENETIC ENGINEERING technique used is SOMATIC cell gene therapy in which the healthy gene is put into body cells that are not part of the normal reproductive process but can…
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