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| Gene Therapy |
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| Gene therapy is a relatively new method of therapeutic interventions, targeted at the level of cellular gene expansion. In this, altering the diseased state is achieved by delivering nucleic acids into a cell. In gene therapy a normal functional gene is introduced into cells that contain the defective allele of the gene. The aim is to correct the disorder. The gene is inserted into the viral vector, which is then introduced into somatic cells. Or the gene, portions of genes or RNA may be introduced into somatic cells directly. The introduced gene is in addition to the defective gene or it can replace the defective gene. |
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| Gene therapy is employed to correct certain diseases like SCID with some success. Trials of somatic gene therapy are in progress for cancer, AIDs and heart attack. |
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| Gene therapy is still in experimental stages. For a successful application of this technique, the gene responsible for the disease has to be correctly identified and cloned for experimenting in the laboratory. The role of gene therapy in correcting genetic disorders is being explored. The method has great promise but additional research is required to make gene therapy effective. |
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