But what role is played by gene therapy in children’s health in general? Gene therapy comes with a few health risks, as far as, kids are concerned so, only very seriously ill children or those kids with illnesses that cannot be treated or cured by the usual medical treatments, have participated in clinical trials that use gene therapy.
As further research and studies continue, the medical fraternity is hoping to find effective solutions and cure for serious illnesses in children by using gene therapy. Gene therapy is expected to treat serious clinical conditions that do not respond to traditional therapies.
What Do You Understand By Genes?
Genes are responsible for making you unique. Inherited from your parents, they play a role in determining your physical traits such as hair texture, color & quality, eye color, etc. They would help in determining if you would have a baby girl or baby boy. They would be determining the amount of oxygen to be transported by your blood, and your likelihood of developing certain diseases. In this context, you must understand that gene therapy implies the effective manipulation of genes for combating or preventing diseases. Simply speaking, it would be incorporating a good gene directly into a patient suffering from a disease triggered by any bad gene. Visit reputed sites such as https://www.mybiosource.com/learn/gene-transfer-technique for more detailed information and insights.
Gene Therapy for Kids
At present gene therapy is performed only via clinical trials that usually take a couple of years to complete. Once new procedures and medications are tested in labs, clinical trials could be conducted with children under strict and heavily controlled environment. The gene therapy research that has been in the forefront actually involves children with genetic disorders such as hemophilia and cystic fibrosis. Other significant gene therapy trials are known to involve kids with serious immunodeficiency, like adenosine deaminase deficiency which is supposed to be a rare genetic malady that makes children prone to hemophilia, thalassemia, sickle cell anemia etc.
The Risks
Gene therapy is known to have its own limitations and risks. The agents and viruses used for delivering the “good” genes could end up affecting more cells than intended. If a gene ends up getting added to DNA obviously, it could be placed in the incorrect place that could potentially trigger cancer or some other damage.
Genes could be mistakenly over expressed. That implies that genes could be driving the protein production. Another potential risk of gene therapy is that virus that has been administered to one person could easily be transmitted to others. Because of the risks involved, gene therapy today is not free from ethical dilemma when kids are related.
Conclusion
Gene therapy would be completely revolutionizing medicine scenario in future. People are looking forward to treating an unborn child apparently for genetic diseases with the help of gene therapy.
Author bio
Daniel Mattei is a Professional writer. He has written many articles on Health, Travel, Education, Lifestyle, Business and Fashion. In this article he has mentioned about Gene Therapy.