gene therapy tagged posts

Scientists have developed a new gene-therapy technique by transforming human cells into mass producers of tiny nano-sized particles full of genetic material that has the potential to reverse disease processes.

Though the research was intended as a proof of concept, the experimental therapy slowed tumor growth and prolonged survival in mice with gliomas, which constitute about 80 percent of malignant brain tumors in humans.

The technique takes advantage of exosomes, fluid-filled sacs that cells release as a way to communicate with other cells.

While exosomes are gaining ground as biologically friendly carriers of therapeutic materials – because there are a lot of them and they don’t prompt an immune response – the trick with gene therapy is f...

Neuroscientists at Lund University in Sweden have developed a new technology that engineers the shell of a virus to deliver gene therapy to the exact cell type in the body that needs to be treated. The researchers believe that the new technology can be likened to dramatically accelerating evolution from millions of years to weeks.

Several of the new revolutionary treatments that have been used clinically in recent years to treat complex diseases – such as spinal muscular atrophy and enzyme deficiency – are based on gene therapy.

With gene therapy, the genetic material is controlled or altered using biological drugs...

In collaboration with the universities of Miami, Columbia and San Francisco, scient...

The T cell receptor on T cells might recognize antigens derived from mutated proteins in cancer cells. Once a foreign “non-self” antigen is detected, the T cell will kill the cancer cell. Credit: Matthias Leisegang.

T cell therapies with less side effects. An international team has successfully modified immune cells to recognize and specifically target tumor cells in mice. Cancer treatments based on the findings would likely have fewer side effects than standard therapies. Although T cells migrate into tumors and recognize antigens, the defense mechanism seems to fail during the formation of tumors. T cells in the tumors are usually inactive and therapeutically almost useless...