1. sa smith
  2. 1800 gene therapy trials

1800 gene therapy trials

By sa smith on January 31, 2013.

I wish I wish I wish this article was open access! ARG!!

Gene therapy clinical trials worldwide to 2012 - an update

This article is a great review of gene therapy as a therapy, and how it has evolved from an experiment that killed children to an accepted therapy that is saving and improving lives.

Here is a list of all the diseases that have been/are/will be treated with gene therapy:

These are trials in humans-- this list doesnt include all of the therapies that are still in the tissue culture/animal model segments of the pipeline.  Can anyone look at that list and not find something that has touched them directly, or through a loved one?  I mean there are things on that list that I havent even heard of!

And guess how all of this technology is made possible?

66.8% of gene therapy trials utilize genetically modified viruses. We live in a time where scientists can domesticate a killer into a savior, and its utterly routine. How long will it take until the number of people saved every year, thanks to viruses, outnumbers the people killed?

I love the future :)

Tags
gene therapy
virology
GMO
vaccines

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There are 64 trials where the gene therapy occurred through an unknown vector. How does that happen? I can only imagine a trial about something else finds 'There was gene therapy, we don't know how we did it!'

Thanks
I have full access to this article

By Abd ALMONEM Do… (not verified) on 31 Jan 2013 #permalink

Wowww, sounds great! What country are these available in? I haven't heard of this (I'm in America.) I've heard of the HIV being used to cure a childhood cancer, but I don't know if that is gene therapy or not.

Now... after the illnesses... they should work on aging... ;)

I saw the Der1p gene in a paper and thought of your blog.

Any word on the development of phage as antibiotics?

I liked that besides some rather dry bean-counting, they at least reviewed a few selected stories about how it's done, and how it's been working out. General public might be interested to hear a few of those explained - it's sometimes so cool.

Engineering T-cells to specifically (well, you try your best) identify your particular cancer cells sounds dangerous as hell, but it might do some good in cases where otherwise we've got little to offer.

Or folks might like the X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy story, just to hear the tidbit that the vector is based on our favorite arch-enemy, HIV-1. It's kind of a cool gene too. The oldest papers about that are public now I think: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19892975 but that'll just be a punishing read, not nearly the kind of explanation I'd wish for in public.

Thanks for pointer!