Gene Therapy: The Leading Cause Of Cancer

Gene therapy is a very controversial topic that has been discussed in the last five years and is being heavily studied to help cure cancer. Gene therapy is a technique aimed at treating genetic disorders by introducing the correct form of the defective gene into the patient’s genome (Dunlop et al., 2010).

Cancer is a term used for diseases in which irregular cells divide without any control and have the capability to penetrate and infect normal body tissue through the blood and lymph system. Cancer is the second leading cause of mortality in the United States, exceeded barely by heart disease. According to the CDC Cancer Statistics and Data, there were more than 1.45 million people diagnosed with various kind of cancer between 1999 and 2007 and out of those more than 562,000 people died due to cancer (cdc.gov, 2012). Currently there are more than 200 different types of cancer that have been discovered. Cancer could be

It has targeted cells that work to kill and defend any pathogen or impurity that enters one’s body. In the case of cancers, a person’s cells grow abnormally forming a tumor. Unlike normal cells, cancer cells lose the ability to undergo apoptosis, cell death. Thus, one’s body harvests a tumor that most likely has a chance to spread and become deadly. Luckily, the biotech industry concocted innovative research that called for a new method of cancer treatment. Immunotherapy is designed to program one’s immune system to destroy and fight off the cancer. Originally, it has been mainly used for allergies. Dosages of medication or vaccinations are given to a patient to ensure that the immune system will not overreact to certain types of foreign substances. The therapy requires a drug that delivers an anticancer immune cell, specifically designed to attach on to the specific antigen that the tumor contains. According to scientist, immunotherapy gives patients “long term protection with reduced side effects against the cancer” (McGinley). The purpose of this treatment is to strengthen the immune system and specifically targets cancerous cells. Due to scientific research and the use of biotechnological methods, immunotherapy is able to prevent the threat of killing cells necessary to one’s body. Providing patients with a treatment that does not take a toll on their bodies, nor threaten to kill healthy cells is one relief the person

Many doctors, physicians, researchers and biotech companies--including the revolutionary Seattle Genetics research facility--are now turning to antibody-assisted cancer treatments and precisely targeted cures instead of treating cancer with a cocktail of chemicals and radiation that generate risky side effects and damage the healthy tissue that patients need to recover. Cancers are among the most frightening and difficult-to-treat illnesses. Ranked as the leading cause of death and disability, cancer is actually an umbrella term that covers many different diseases. Each person faces a unique disease because cancers interact with the body's existing cells, so each case has a

Prof. Jonathan Bramson holds a BSc in Biochemistry and a PhD in Experimental Medicine from McGill University. He has published 96 research manuscripts, 11 review articles, and 2 book chapters. He has also submitted 3 patent applications in the area of immunotherapy. His research is focused on the mechanisms by which the adaptive immune system recognizes and responds to tumours and a specific interest is the development of immunological strategies to fight cancer. He is currently a tenured professor at the department of pathology and molecular medicine at McMaster University, since 2009 director of the McMaster Immunology Research Centre (MIRC) and holder of the John Bienenstock Chair in Molecular Medicine as well as the Tier I Canada Research

Once the T-cells have been isolated, synthetic antibodies are produced and integrated into the surface of the T-cells that recognize specific antigens on the affected tumor and cancer cells. The timeline for manufacturing Kymriah is approximately three to four weeks. The period in which the gene immunotherapy is being prepared, patient will undergo immunosuppression chemotherapy to prepare the body to accept the genetically modified T-cells.

For years people have been looking for a cure for the devastating disease of cancer. Cancer is the third highest killer in the US with over 2,500,000 victims per year. Oncologists and scientists around the country are researching all forms of cancer in an effort to understand, treat, and ultimately defeat this disease. Already there have been numerous advances in the field, such as chemotherapy and gene therapy. One advance has been the use of a cell process known as apoptosis. By harnessing this normal cell process, scientists hope to have found an effective way to combat cancer.

Genetic engineering allows biologists to manipulate an organism's genomes by utilizing biotechnology (Moulton, 2004 ). The Talimogene Laherparepvec virus, otherwise known as T-vec, is an oncolytic virus. A oncolytic virus, is a virus that destroys cancerous cells. The T-vec virus has recently had successful results for treating melanoma cancer. The virus originated from the herpes simplex virus 1 and has been genetically altered to help destroy cancer cells.The virus gets injected into the lesions, lesions are areas on or in the body that have been damaged . Not only does the virus destroy cancer cells, it also activities the immune system to attack the cancer cells. Many changes were done to diminish the virus, expand the selective for the cancer cells, and release the cytokine. The modifications that were implanted in the virus were, HSV-1 strain (JS1) which is the DNA set of the herpes virus, that increases the death of the tumour cells. To delete ICP34.5, that stops the HSV infection in the cells that are not tumorous, and will provide selective tumour duplication. As Well as the deletion of ICP47 that allows antigen presentation, an antigen is a substance that helps enable an immune response. Placing in the US11 will

Without a vector, mutated cells cannot be targeted, which means the treatment would be ineffective. Since the 1990’s, scientists have experimented with the use of viral vectors, such retroviruses, adeno viruses and adeno asscociated viruses. Viruses contain a circular piece of DNA known as the plasmid. During gene therapy, the segment of DNA responsible for viral spread is removed. The correct copy of the mutated gene is then inserted into the virus. The virus is then inhaled,swallowed or injected depending on the location of the target cells. (in the case of CF, the vector is inhaled). Retroviruses are viruses that contains RNA instead of DNA. Retroviruses can only infect dividing cells and the viral RNA needs to be reverse transcribed to DNA, so that gene can be replicated for mitosis (this is done using enzymes). Unfortunately, retroviruses have been found to implant genes into random parts of the genome. This means that the introduced gene can disrupt an existing, functional gene. Between 1999 and 2006, reasearchers performed gene therapy on 5 children with a genetic immune defficiency, using retroviruses as vectors. By 2006, all 5 of these children had developed leukemia as a result of the vector implanting into a random part of the genome. Adenoviruses have also been used as vectors, however, they do not integrate into the genome permaneatly and are likely to trigger an immune response. In 1999,

This kind of treatment helps an immune system fight the disease by generally boosting the whole immune system, or helping to train it to specifically go after cancer, or by directly supplying extra immune components, like man-made

This is one method through which the body regulates the immune system, to avoid an overreaction. Many cancer cells make PD-L1, which inhibits T cells from

Despite the promise of such approaches, a number of difficulties remain to be overcome, the most important of which is the need for more efficient systems of gene delivery. No gene transfer system is 100% efficient, unless germ-line therapy is contemplated. During the past two decades, there have been major advances in our understanding of how cancer develops, proving that cancer has a genetic basis (2). A series of genetic abnormalities that accumulate in one cell may result in a pattern of abnormal clonal proliferation. Our growing understanding of the genetic basis of cancer offers new opportunities for the molecular prevention and treatment of cancer. There has been a

seems to hold the key to make this a reality. Gene Therapy is still in its early stages and is still

• Targeted therapy. This treatment targets specific parts of cancer cells and the area around them to block the growth and spread of the cancer.

Unlike chemotherapy, immunotherapy helps the immune system to differentiate the cancerous cells from the healthy cells that grow as fast as cancer cell. Some immunotherapy treatments can be accessed easily as they can be found in the form of shots or pills that a person can take home whilst other types of treatment delivered intravenously (IV, within the vein) can be found in the hospital or clinic. The treatment is followed by a period of rest. The resting period gives the patient’s body a chance to recover and the time to respond to the immunotherapy and build new cells that are healthy. Immunotherapy can also teach the immune system to recall cancer cells. This memory that the immune system have can results in longer-lasting