I just posted the header and time stamp, Henry.
Thursday December 31, 1:38 PM (EST)
Gene therapy with molecular switch opens new possibilities
WASHINGTON, Dec 31 (AFP) - Using a unique combination of cutting-edge
technologies, scientists
have introduced a new gene therapy that will make a number of new
treatments possible, a report
in Science magazine said Thursday.
The novel therapy introduces therapeutic genes into the body and then
controls them with a drug
given as a simple pill.
What the research shows is an entirely new form of drug delivery through
a harmless virus
acting as a carrier of a molecular switch that can control the gene.
Reeseachers at the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center and ARIAD
Pharmaceuticals in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed the technique which has been
successfully tested on monkeys
and mice.
"It's a very precise gene switch, a kind of molecular rheostat," Dr
James Wilson of
Pennsylvania Medical Center explained. A common rheostat is the dimmer
switch used in household
lights.
"We're excited about these results, because they create new
opportunities for experimental and
then clinical applications of gene threapy that we couldn't consider
before," said Wilson,
director of the Institute for Human Gene Therapy at Penn, and senior
author of the Science
report.
The system couples advances at Penn allowing long-term introduction of
genes into the body with
ARIAD's patented technology to regulate gene activity.
"The ability to achieve dosage control of a drug in the context of gene
therapy is going to be
critical to making a number of new treatments possible," Michael Gilman,
chief scientific
officer at ARIAD said.
The new method has distinct advantages over current drug delivery
systems, Gilman said.
With oral or injectable drugs, the patient has peaks and valleys in the
amount of drug in the
blood.
"One of the real advantages of using gene therapy to deliver drugs is
that you can deliver them
in a steady trickle that can be adjusted through administration of a
pill," Gillman added.
The next step, researchers say, will be clinical trials.
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