Gene Therapy Pros and Cons
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Some pros and cons of gene therapy are:
Pros:
I think the pros all seem like very good ideas and gene therapy is a successful experiment. There have been numerous revolutionary breakthroughs in gene therapy of disorders like inherent blindness, cancer, myeloid disorders, and sickle-cell disorders. Cancer treatments focus on re-engineering lymphocytes to target and attack cancer cells, or using tumor-suppressing genes to reduce number and size of tumors.
Cons:
Meanwhile, the cons are a bit more negative though. These factors have kept gene therapy from becoming a mainstream treatment for genetic disorders: 1. The DNA introduced to target cells is not replicated during S phase, and patients would have to undergo multiple, frequent treatments.2. As the immune system immediately attacks any foreign object in the body, there is a risk that the immune response reduces the effectiveness of gene therapy.3. Using viral vectors may cause inflammatory responses. Also, there is a fear that once inside the body, the virus will recover its ability to cause its original disease.4. Many common genetic disorders like arthritis are caused by the malfunction of many genes, making it difficult to treat effectively.
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Jake | Jun 11, 2010 | Reply
All but one of the given cons were weak. The only thing I would consider a con is “3. Using viral vectors may cause inflammatory responses. Also, there is a fear that once inside the body, the virus will recover its ability to cause its original disease.”
All the other cons are purely neutral, not really negative at all.