Category Archives: Biological Sciences

Hearing Regained

Posted on March 4, 2013 by bmaxwell | 7 comments

Have you lost your ear or part of it? Well, new research has come to light to help with that problem! In a new study done by physicians at Weill Cornell Medical College and biomedical engineers at Cornell University, human ears can be developed to look and act just as real as the ones people are born with.

The research was conducted in hopes of developing alternatives to replacement ears, which are currently used to treat children who do not have ears or have deformed ones. The most common use of the replacement ears is to treat children who are suffering from a congenital disorder known as microtia where there are problems in ear tissue development. This results in hearing loss which varies depending on the severity of the case. The current replacement ears are of a Styrofoam base and the procedure children undergo to have them surgically attached usually comes with many challenges. The surgery can be quite painful for children and sometimes the ears do not last, work proficiently or even look natural. However, with this new study, another option will soon be available.

Child with microtia. Image provided by Wikimedia Commons.

The Cornell team of researchers has developed a bioengineering technique that allows them to produce very human like ears. The process of making the ears for patients is actually quite a quick process and can be completed within a few weeks. First, using a combination laser scanner as well as taking a panoramic photo of the patient’s ear, a 3D image is obtained. Depending on the case, the physicians may use one of the “good” ears of a patient or it is a possibility they may construct one from scratch based on what a proper ear would look like. Next, they turn the image of the ear into a “digitized solid ear” and a 3D printer is able to construct a mirror image mold of the ear to be. Collagen is then injected into the mold, followed by the addition of approximately 250 million cartilage cells. About 15 minutes after this mixture of collagen and cartilage has been injected, the ear is ready to be removed. Lastly, the ear’s shape is perfected, and it is placed in a culture medium where it stays until the implantation.

Below is a video of Dr. Lawrence Bonassar, who was one of the key author’s describing the bioengineered ears his team has developed.

Although human implantation is still a few years away, this research is life changing. To think that a child’s hearing could be restored and that the bioengineered ears look so natural is truly a wonderful thing.

Brittany Maxwell

7 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

Tagged 3D printer, bioengineering, Cornell University, human ear, microtia

Memory: A Biological Time-Travelling Mechanism

Posted on March 4, 2013 by pedramlf | 2 comments

A word map of the word “memory.”
Image Source: Dynamic Memory Lab

Do you remember what you had for breakfast today? What about the lyrics to your favourite music? Or the names of the people you met today? If you are trying to recall your memory right now, then you are initiating an extremely complex and rapid cascade of hormonal and neuronal events happening within your brain to provide you with a simple answer.

An image depicting the many things that we memorize.
Image Source: Eternal Beauty & Youth

For more than 40 years, neuroscientists have studied the mechanics of memory within our nervous system. According to basic models, memory breaks down to three main processes, which include acquisition, storage, and retrieval. When we see, hear, taste, smell, or touch something, this information is relayed to our nervous system where it is processed. After processing (or simultaneously with processing), the information is stored as memory, and can be recalled when necessary.

For many years, neuroscientists were fond of describing memory as a filing cabinet in our brain where information from the senses is fed to for storage. But today, experts believe that memory is far more elusive and complex than what anyone has thought in the past! Although recent theories describe that memory is stored in multiple structures within the brain, it is still not known exactly how memory is physically stored. Below is a video explaining that several parts of the brain are active when performing multiple tasks:

Thus, according to the video above, one may think that brain structures responsible for a certain function become active when the task at hand involves such a function. For example, when visual memory is being tested, we notice a high neuronal activity within the occipital lobe, which is responsible for visual information.

But, what about recalling information from the past? How do we retrieve information from our memory? Neuroscientists in the past hypothesized that retrieving memory is as simple as scanning the file cabinet of memories within the memory centre of the brain and pulling out the file that matched your request. However, much like how the storage is complex, the retrieval is not so simple either.

An artistic representation of a human’s memory being much like a computer’s memory.
Image Source: White Locust

Neurophysiologists now hypothesize that memory works a lot like a biological time machine. Let’s consider an example — let’s say that I ate some very delicious cinnamon buns this morning for breakfast. When I try to recall the smell and taste of the delicious cinnamon buns, my memory triggers a cascade of hormonal and neuronal events that mimic the biological state of my mind and body at the moment of time when I first took a whiff and bite of the cinnamon buns. In other words, let’s say that my body and mind were at state X when I took my first whiff and bite of the cinnamon buns in the morning. Now, several hours has passed and my body and mind are at state Y. When I try to carefully remember the delicious taste and aroma of the cinnamon buns, my body strives to make Y approach X; the more time I spend thinking about the taste and smell of the cinnamon buns, the closer Y gets to X.

Below is a video of Dr. Antonio Damasio, a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Southern California, who describes how memory works:

Although we still do not quite understand memory, our theories about its mechanics have certainly improved, according to neuroscientists.

– Pedram Laghaei

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Public Engagement, Science in the News

Tagged Acquisition, Biological, Human Memory, Mechanics, memory, Memory Mechanics, Memory Retrieval, Memory Storage, Nervous System, Neurophysiology, Neuroscience, Neuroscientists, Retrieval, Storage

Male Birth Control

Posted on March 3, 2013 by grattin | 2 comments

In the past, contraceptives were not as readily available. Consequentially, sex was a greater risk for women than men because women would have to deal with nine uncomfortable months of child bearing. Pregnancy can limit a women’s ability to work and independently provide for herself, ultimately preventing her from achieving what Erika Christakis calls the “American Dream.” The use of oral contraceptives has sexually liberated women by optimizing convenient and effective birth control options and other contraceptives can decrease overpopulation and prevent sexually transmitted infections (STIs).

Currently, there are several options to prevent unwanted pregnancies. Of these contraceptive methods, some are predominantly the male’s responsibility (condoms) while others are largely understood as female contraceptives (oral birth control pills). Furthermore, some are permanent (like vasectomies and tubectomies) while others are reversible. Reversible alternatives, like birth control allow couples to change their mind incase they decide to have a child. It is obviously crucial to find the alternative that works best for you. Condoms are readily available and protect against STIs but quite unreliable because they can rip easily. Also for men, vasectomies are very effective but are permanent. On the other hand, oral contraceptives don’t prevent STIs and require the female to take a pill every single day otherwise they are completely ineffective. Moreover, these pills come with undesirable side effects. People in long-term relationships, who feel safe from STIs, often avoid condoms because condoms minimize sensations. Daily pills for women are very popular because they aren’t permanent and they maximize sensitivity.

Women are typically held responsible – they have to buy the pills and make sure to take them every day! So, what if the same pill existed for men? Indeed, they have invented similar (reversible) alternatives for men.

Another scientist has almost completed a pill called Gamendazole that minimizes fertility. So only recently have they started developing male birth control and hardly any men are aware of it. How would this affect the current social dynamics regarding birth control? The following news report briefly outlines some common thoughts and attitudinal barriers men would face with male birth control.

Some people believe that men are too forgetful and couldn’t remember to take a pill every day. I don’t think that is entirely true. Men have great memories when what they are trying to remember directly affects them (like the sports score.) Also, vasalgel is injected and lasts ten years and therefore requires no memory. I believe that women naturally take responsibility because pregnancies affect them much more directly, leaving them vulnerable and restricted for nine months. Also, pregnancies permanently affect the mother’s (valued) body leaving scars and stretch marks. Even further, women must face the painful task of labour. And it is the women, too, who must physically go through an abortion. The fact that men don’t have to deal with any of these physical consequences is why their attitude towards pregnancy is less serious than women.

Grattin Cox 8203 2103

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Public Engagement, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged birth control, contraceptives, gamendazole, gender, male birth control, tubectomy, vasalgel, vasectomy

Cholesterol’s role in heart disease

Posted on February 25, 2013 by andybyun | 2 comments

Causes of death pie chart (Image from http://www.sca-aware.org)

Heart disease is the leading cause of death in the world, and it has been long known that heart disease is highly associated with elevated levels of cholesterol. Cholesterol is fatty substance which originates from dietary intake and liver production. If you have thought of cholesterol merely as a measurement of obesity (which is not entirely wrong), you should keep in mind that an adequate level of cholesterol is vital to help your brain, skin, heart, and other organs grow and do their jobs in the body.

Cholesterol can be divided into two groups: LDL (low density lipoprotein) and HDL (high density lipoprotein). LDL is called “bad” cholesterol, because it is the LDL cholesterol that forms plaques and is associated with heart disease. HDL is called the “good” cholesterol, because HDL cholesterol actually extracts LDL cholesterol from artery walls and moves them back into liver, preventing atherosclerosis.

HDL vs LDL (image from http://www.ellies-whole-grains.com/)

The LDL cholesterol is unarguably one of the risk factors that often make heart diseases deadly, but it has not been clearly understood why. However, University of British Columbia researchers David Fedida and Jodene Eldstrom discovered that cholesterol disrupts the flow of the electrical currents that generate the heart beat, causing cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeats).

We have countless ion channels present in the membranes of all cells in the body, and they are key components in a wide variety of biological processes. The type of protein channels that are involved in the mechanism by which the heart’s electrical activity occurs is voltage-gated Kv1.5 potassium channel.

The heart undergoes depolarization (positively charged) as positively charged potassium ions move into the cell through Kv1.5 potassium channel. Shortly after depolarization, the heart releases potassium ions and returns its membrane potential to a negative value (repolarization). The ion exchanges are regulated by Kv1.5 potassium channel. The continuous depolarization and repolarization create small electric current.

All the cells with Kv1.5 potassium channel contributes to this process like little batteries, and the generated electricity flows through the heart as an impulse and the heart beats. One important thing about this ion channels is that they are synthesized inside the cell and transported to the cell’s surface. They stay at the surface for only a few hours, and then they internalize back into the cells to be degraded or remade again. Dr. David Fedida found that cholesterol disrupts this whole recycling process and affects the number of cells that can act as “little batteries”, causing the heartbeat to quicken, and eventually fail. David Fedida explains that cholesterol-lowering drugs may help normalize the heart’s electrical activity.

Small amount of cholesterol is inevitable for normal function of body. However, excessive cholesterol can lead to sudden cardiac arrest: the number one cause of death in the world. This discovery of additional danger of cholesterol on coronary heart disease sheds light on sudden death in people with high cholesterol and opens ways to potential anti-arrhythmic drugs.

Andy Byun

2 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science in the News, Uncategorized

Tagged cardiac arrhythmias, Cholesterol, David Fedida, Depolarization, irregular heartbeats, Kv1.5 potassium channel, Repolarization

An Antidote For Alcohol?

Posted on February 25, 2013 by kleask | 3 comments

I’m sure at one point or another, most people have gone out to a bar or a house party, lost track of time and realized “Shoot, my 8am class starts in a couple hours” or “I’ll get fired if I show up to work with a hangover again”. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could just take a pill and sober up almost immediately and hangover free?

A variety of oriental raisin tree has been the basis of a hangover cure for 500 years. Scientists have recently extracted a chemical from this tree called dihydromyricetin (DHM) which was tested on drunken rats with interesting results. The lead researcher, Jin Liang, claims “DHM will reduce the degree of drunkenness for the amount of alcohol drunk and will definitely reduce the hangover symptoms, in time it will reduce [an alcoholic’s] desire for alcohol”.

The effects of DHM have yet to be tested on humans, but when tested on rats, there were positive results. Liang found that a dose of DHM helped an intoxicated rat’s coordination return over 10 times faster than without it. When the rats had hangovers induced by alcohol injections, they were found to hide in the corners or a maze. Within minutes of being given a dose of DHM the rats were curiously exploring the maze as if they never had a hangover.

Photo Source: beachpackagingdesign.com

With a pill that causes sobriety, it is logical that alcoholics are a target audience for this drug. Over a span of three months, rats were injected with alcohol and were given a choice between sweetened water or a sweetened alcohol solution. At the end of this period, it was noted that the rats treated with DHM drank 75% less of the alcohol solution than the rats without treatment did.

This chemical seems to be the cure for drunkenness, hangovers and alcoholism, but it isn’t the first alcohol antidote that has been discovered. Several years ago a similar compound called Ro15-4513 was created. Many believed this was the cure for alcoholism, but complications including a short half life (meaning many doses would be required for complete sobriety) as well as negative side effects in the case of an overdose, caused the development of Ro15-4513 to be deserted.

As useful as this drug would be to use from time to time, there would still be legal issues for some uses of it as DHM blocks the effects of alcohol but it would still remain in your bloodstream. Would you trust someone to drive a car after taking DHM? They would be acting sober, but what if the effects of DHM run out before the alcohol has left their body? I believe that if patented, this drug should only be available for use of alcoholics to cure their addiction otherwise it could lead to increased drinking and dependence on DHM.

Kathleen Leask

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Science in the News

Tagged alcohol, alcoholics, alcoholism, cure, DHM, dihydromyricetin, hangover, intoxication, rats, Ro15-4513

Panic Attacks

Posted on February 25, 2013 by si20 | Leave a comment

Being a student and having to reach the deadlines sometimes can be stressful. Research shows that large number of college and university students about 35% have experienced panic attacks during their life. A panic attack is a period of sudden fear and anxiety that can last minutes to hours, and if it is left untreated, it can become chronic. Many people reported that experiencing a panic attack for the first time felt like having a heart attack or a nervous breakdown. Even though panic attacks are not an indication of mental disorders, they could be part of other disorders, such as social phobia, panic disorder, or depression . Panic attacks can strike a person without any warning and with no obvious reasons; they can happen even when the person is relaxed or sleep. According to Dr. Kim Maertz, 3% of population are going to develop panic disorder, and they would experience more panic attacks due to the fear of further panic attacks.

Symptoms

Signs and symptoms of panic attacks happen suddenly and reach their picks by 10 minutes and usually end within 20 to 30 minutes. Some symptoms of panic attacks are very similar to ones of heart attack. Due to experiencing heart racing, shortness of breath, chase pain, chocking feeling, etc., people suffering from panic attacks would repeatedly visit their doctors and emergency rooms. Fear of dying, losing control, or going crazy are other symptoms of panic attacks that would accumulate to form panic disorder. Fear of having panic attack cause people to avoid places where they experienced terrifying symptoms of panic attack before; constantly having the fear of fear can disrupt their daily lives.

As Ph.D. Steven J. Seay wrote, “It might feel like you’re dying but you’re not. That’s just what the panic wants you to think.”

Causes of panic attack

Exact causes of panic attacks are unclear since they occur unpredictably. A trend has been seen in families, so heredity could be a reason for panic attacks. sometimes sever stress due to losing a job or loved ones or going through a major transition in life can trigger panic attacks. Panic attacks could also be due to medical and physical causes; in this case, it is important to visit a doctor for diagnosis.

Coping Strategies

Even though panic attack sound horrifying for people who are suffering from it, they are easily treatable. There are many options to cop with panic attacks and treat them, such as therapy, medication, and self-help options. Some of self-help options could be like having better diet and exercising routine, informing one self about panic attacks, reducing amount of stress in life and control breathing. If you think that you are having a panic attack, it would be the best to distract yourself from it by doing positive activities, such as watching TV, having a shower or bath, playing a game, etc. There is more tips on coping strategies in the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COMQdoHMQVo[/youtube]

I believe that having a panic attack could be the worse feeling that one could experience, so if you see somebody having a panic attack, please, be more patient and considerate towards them.

Simin Yahyavi

An Increase in Steriod use among teenagers?

Posted on February 18, 2013 by ds0314 | 3 comments

Muscular male model portrayed in advertisement

Body image issues affect everyone, especially image-conscious teenagers. Influenced by Hollywood movies, celebrities, and fashion magazines, teenagers wish for that perfect body in the media. As a result, teenagers are taking riskier substances to achieve their perfect bodies. In particular, a recent study from the University of Minnesota shows that teenagers are increasingly using illegal substances such as anabolic-androgenic steroids to build muscles and tone their bodies. The main issue with the findings is that the rates are much higher than previously reported.

What is Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids?

Anabolic-androgenic Steroids are usually injected with needles

Anabolic-androgenic steroids are essentially similar to male-sex-hormone testosterone and help to build muscles and promote the development of male sexual characteristics. While doctors may prescribe steroids to men with medical conditions such as anemia or men who do not naturally produce enough testosterone, doctors never prescribe the drug for the purpose of muscle building. Such steroids include andro, oxandrin, dianabol, winstrol, deca-durabolin, and equipoise and are usually injected directly by the user to the muscle to promote muscle growth. The main concern with steroid use is that most users abuse it; most users over use the drug by 10 to 100 times higher than what is recommended by doctors. As a result, steroid users suffer from many side effects, which include hair loss, oily skin, severe mood fluctuation, aggressive behavior, and severe acne. More serious side effects include addiction, shrinking of testicles, an increase in cardiovascular disease, weakened immune system, infertility, liver damage, and prostate cancer.

Negative side effects of Steroids

What is the main concern for Steroid use among teenagers?

Despite these side effects, teenagers are driven to achieve their perfect bodies and are willing to go to extreme lengths. In the study, SPH professors Marla Eisenberg, Dianne Neumark-Sztainer, and Melanie Wall, surveyed 2,700 teenagers aged around 14 years and found that 5.9% of boys and 4.6% girls were using steroids; 5 to 10% were using other non-steroid protein substances such as creatine. Steroid use among teenagers is riskier as teenagers are not fully-grown and can cause irreversible damages such as affecting brain cells, prematurely stunted growth, and extreme puberty changes. These high figures show that there is an increase in profound body image problems caused primarily by popular media. Men in advertisements and media have become much more muscular and women have become toner. This directly affects teenagers, who develop body dissatisfaction and body dysmorphia. The researchers clearly indicate their concerns and warn parents, pediatricians, teachers and coaches to look for symptoms of body image issues, which include obsession with exercise, diet, depression, sudden muscle and weight gain, behavioral changes, and aggression.

What is the bottom line?

The bottom line is that steroid abuse causes lasting, irreversible damage to young teenagers and should never be popularized among teens. Parents and pediatricians should emphasize and promote healthier ways to build muscles naturally, in the form of healthy diet, regular exercise, and sports. I would like to end my blog with the following clip of a teenager who experienced firsthand the negative side effects of steroids and his regrets.

Derek Song

3 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Public Engagement, Uncategorized

Tagged abuse, body image, bodybuilding, drugs, dysmorphia, steroids, Teenagers

Yoga’s Effects on Major Psychiatric Disorders

Posted on February 11, 2013 by ashleyd | 4 comments

Yoga is an extremely popular form of exercise. I am sure that most of the people reading this blog have at one point tried a form of yoga. It is practiced by 15.8 million adults in the US alone.

A review of studies done about the exercise on major clinical psychiatric disorders was published recently in the journal, “Frontiers in Psychiatry.” The studies looked at effects of yoga on depression, schizophrenia, ADHD, sleep complaints, eating disorders and cognition problems. The review found evidence from biomarker studies showing that yoga influences certain elements of the body believed to play a role in mental health in similar ways that antidepressants and psychotherapy do.

A Hatha Yoga class (image by NewHomeLivingBC/ flickr.com)

Benefits were found for all mental health illnesses included above except for eating disorders and cognition problems, as evidence was conflicting or lacking.
Depression alone affects more than 350 million people world-wide and is the leading cause of disability according to the World Health Organization (WHO). A study carried out by WHO found that 60% of patients were still depressed after being treated with an anti-depressant.

By reducing perceived stress and anxiety, yoga appears to modulate stress response systems, decreasing physiological arousal- reducing heart rate, lowering blood pressure, and easing respiration. It also helps increase heart variability, which is an indicator of the body’s ability to respond to stress more flexibly. Researchers at the University of Utah did a study of varied participants’ responses to pain, and found that yoga practitioners had the highest pain tolerance and lowest pain-related brain activity during the MRI when they were subjected to thumbnail pressure.

For people with schizophrenia, psychotic episodes are often triggered by stressful events, becoming agitated, restless, and disturbed. Grounding and centering yoga could channel these energies towards a calmer and more controlled mood.

Professor of Psychiatry and Medicine at Duke University Medical Center, and author of the review, Dr. P. Murali Doraiswamy, stated that, “The search for improved treatments, including non-drug based, to meet the holistic needs of patients is of paramount importance and we call for more research into yoga as a global priority.” According to him, yoga may not only help improve symptoms, but may have a supporting role in prevention of stress-related mental illnesses. Below is a video of Dr. Doraiswamy discussing the benefits of yoga.

There are many benefits associated with practicing yoga for improving mental health, including fewer side effects. For many patients dealing with depression, yoga may be a very appealing way to better manage symptoms. I believe mental and physical health are essentially equivalent. Yoga practice is relatively low-risk, high-yield way to improve your overall health, and I think this should be known by a much broader audience.

4 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Public Engagement

Tagged Mental Health, Yoga

The Promised Future of Prosthetics: Robotic Limbs

Posted on February 11, 2013 by fardad | 6 comments

It must feel great to be able to feel a friend’s hand after seven years. Researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and UPMC have enabled a 30-year-old paralysed man to be able to move his robotic arm by means of electrodes placed in his brain. The tested patient has been paralysed for seven years after a motorcycle accident. “It feels like I’m robocop” says Tim Hemmes, the spinal patient. Researchers used the newly developed brain-computer interference (BCI) technology to make Tim he has hand again. The data released from Tim’s thoughts are then interpreted by an IBM designed processor. The analysed data are then put into command language for the robotic limb. “When Tim reached out to high-five me with the robotic arm, we knew this technology had the potential to help people who cannot move their own arms achieve greater independence,” said Dr. Wang, when watching a memorable scene in 2011.

Today, different types of bionics are being made. There exists bionic lenses, bionic arms and bionic legs. However, the accuracy of these devices are not perfect yet but the clinical cases are showing a promising future in this field.

Tim Hemmes’s case

How does it work?!

In order for patience to feel comfortable using the prosthetic limb, the designed limb’s weight should match the actual limb’s weight. This prevents researchers from producing gigantic robots. The next step in making a robotic limb is building an appropriate BCI which matches the right part of the brain. In order to do so, researchers use functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to find the right place for the conductors. Conductors take data orders from your brain and analyse those data using bio-computational algorithms to transform data into machine language. The robots then do the job for the patient.

The robots used should have the same functionality as the actual limb since it is believed the brain of the patient can only command in a certain manner. That certain manner matches with what the patient did with his/her actual limb and our brains are not trained for anything beyond what our limbs can do.

Below is a Ted talk showing the clinical accomplishments of robotic limbs:

Although it is very early to comment on this technology but it is pretty evident that soon this technology will become a solution for amputated limbs. Many different researched are also being conducted on robotic lenses but not a lot of successful cases have been reported yet.

References:

1. Di Pino G, Porcaro C, Tombini M, et al. A neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis tuned inter-hemispheric communication. Restorative Neurol Neurosci. 2012;30(5):407-418.

2. Di Pino G, Porcaro C, Tombini M, et al. A neurally-interfaced hand prosthesis tuned inter-hemispheric communication. Restorative Neurol Neurosci. 2012;30(5):407-418.

3. Guymer R. The challenge and the promise of the bionic eye. the bionic vision australia project. Clin Exp Ophthalmol. 2012;40:123-124.

4. Li Hu, Yang Jian-yu, Su Peng-cheng, Wang Wan-shan. Computer aided modeling and pore distribution of bionic porous bone structure. J Cent South Univ. 2012;19(12):3492-3499.

5. Mironov V, Boland T, Trusk T, Forgacs G, Markwald RR. Organ printing: Computer-aided jet-based 3D tissue engineering. Trends Biotechnol. 2003;21(4):157-161.

6 Comments

Posted in Biological Sciences, Issues in Science, Science Communication, Science in the News

Tagged biomedical, bionics, biotechnology, medicine, Outreach Project, prosthetic

Gene therapy, newly developed treatment approved in Europe

Posted on February 10, 2013 by kmin | 2 comments

Genes (composed of deoxyribonucleic acid, also known as DNA) function as the biological determinants of heredity that exhibit traits, such as eye color and they are located on chromosomes inside cells.

Gene therapy

Gene therapy is an experimental treatment that involves introducing genetic material (DNA or RNA) into a person’s cells to fight or prevent disease. It facilitates our body by providing the genes in needs, or correct copies of defective genes that may potentially cause genetic disorders. So far, researchers are studying gene therapy in clinical trials to suit different types of cancer and other various diseases, such as hemophilia B, Parkinson’s disease, and HIV.

Several approaches are being attempted in order to cure diseases via gene therapy. First of all, mutated genes that cause diseases are replaced with healthy copies of the genes. Also, mutated genes that are functioning improperly are inactivated. Finally, new genes are introduced into the body to help fighting against diseases.

Generally, a gene cannot be directly inserted into a person’s cell. So, a vector, which is used to deliver a gene to a person’s cell, is used. Virus is the most commonly used vector in gene therapy. Although the viruses are genetically altered to be safe and carry normal human DNA, some risks still exist with gene therapy.

Gene therapy was not available outside a clinical trial until recently. Since 1990, hundreds of clinical trials have been conducted and most have failed as it was difficult to deliver the genes and keep them activated for a long time. Also, the incident of a teenager’s death during a clinical trial at the University of Pennsylvania in 1999 brought the safety concerns on the surface. However, researchers have been slowly overcoming the obstacles and in the last few years there have been reports of successes in attempts to treat cancer, hemophilia B, certain immune diseases and a condition that causes blindness.

After all, gene therapy was first officially approved in Europe. The European Medicines Agency has recommended the application of a gene therapy to treat rare genetic diseases. This was actually the very first regulatory approval of a gene therapy drug in the Western world. Also, a gene therapy to treat cancer won an approval in China in 2003.

As illustrated, a gene therapy has been a controversial topic and it was successful in establishing realistic procedure in the world. Still it is not such a common method that we encounter in the medical field. As it was proven to be beneficial and effective in treating number of symptoms, our deeper attention and acknowledgement regarding this content would be an advantageous step in discovering a new tool to cure diseases.

Here is a video more detailed descriptions about the gene therapy.