Gene therapy success
Blood disorders caused by abnormal β-globin — β-thalassaemia and sickle cell disease — are the most prevalent inherited disorders worldwide, with patients often remaining dependent on blood transfusions throughout their lives. So a report of the successful use of gene therapy in a case of severe β-thalassaemia —
using a lentiviral vector expressing the β-globin gene — is an eagerly awaited event.
More than two years after gene transfer, the adult male patient has been transfusion-independent for 21 months .
The therapeutic benefit seems to result from a dominant, myeloid-biased cell clone that may remain benign, although it could yet develop into leukaemia — a reminder that gene therapy is still at an early stage.Source:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v4 ... 16-08.html