Gene therapy is a way of curing or slowing down the action of diseases caused by genetic disorders (gene mutation) using Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA). Unlike traditional drug therapy, the procedure of gene therapy involves injecting a functional DNA to replace a gene that has been mutated. Some diseases however are caused by the failure of not just one but multiple DNA. Two major types of gene therapy are used; somatic gene therapy and germ-line gene therapy. For somatic gene therapy, the genetic material that is transferred to the body of a patient in the course of the therapy is not transferrable to future generations. On the other hand, the genetic changes in the patient are passed on to the patient’s offspring since egg and sperm cells are modified by the functional genes.
Since its first successful application in the treatment of a disease in the 1990s, issues concerning its efficacy and ethics have come under serious debate. Some very salient of these issues are considered in the following paragraphs of this write-up.
In the delivery of gene therapy, the technique involves the use of delivery vehicles called vectors which can be viral or non-viral. Viral vectors are used by replacing the genetic component of viruses with the therapeutic gene and introducing it to target cells in the patient. In the non-viral approach, naked-DNAs and liposomes are directly injected to target cells in a patient using gene gun and electroporation. The two procedures involve injecting a foreign material into the body of the patient. The immune system attacks this invader and in most cases renders the therapy ineffective. Because the immune system has been exposed to this invader before makes it difficult for this therapy to be repeated in the patient (Zhou, Liu, & Liang, 2009). In some cases, the viral vector may become toxic to the host cell causing inflammatory responses and the fear of the viral vector infecting the cell with a disease is also pervasive.
Furthermore, somatic gene therapy has been found not to deliver long-term benefits to the treatment of diseases. This is due to the instability of the host cells of the therapeutic gene as a result of cell division. The implication of this is the need to repeat this procedure many times on the patient. One problem arising from this is that posed by the immune system as stated above. Another attendant problem to repetition of treatment is cost. Gene therapy procedure is very expensive compared to normal therapeutic treatment of diseases. This will be difficult for patients without sufficient medical insurance to afford. Simply put, gene therapy will be for the super comfortable.
Moral issues surround the germ-line gene therapy because it leaves a permanent impression on the patients and their future generations. Some scientists perceive it as interfering in the genetic inheritance of an individual. While others just see the need to cure a patient of a disease. It is noteworthy that any new technology may be misused, hence the need for rules and guidelines governing its use.
My opinions on some of the issues relating to the use of gene therapy that have been examined in this paper are presented below.
Although the technique is a promising one in the treatment of diseases, much still needs to be done to perfect it (Li & Huang, 2000). This will reduce the need for multiple procedures to cure a disease. Since in most cases, especially in somatic gene therapy, total treatment cannot be achieved after a single procedure, this makes gene therapy prohibitively expensive for patients. In the treatment of a disease, I think payment for gene therapy should be for getting a cure for the disease and not for a procedure. In that way, patients will not be made to pay for the failures and inadequacies of the technology.
It is not surprising that ethical and issues have been raised about gene therapy. Many other innovative procedures and technologies used especially in the medical field to advance human health care have also been subjected to such issues of ethics and questions of morality. A good example of this is organ transplant. In gene therapy, issues have been raised concerning patenting human genes that will be used for therapy. Some have argued that since every human being has genes, it should be meant for the use of everyone. On the whole, I believe all such ethical issues are better addressed by an appropriate regulatory body with oversight functions in such field. In some European countries for example, permission will have to be obtained from relevant national bodies and ethics committee before trials of new drugs or clinical procedures are carried out.
REFERENCES
Gene Therapy. Human Genome Project Information. Retrieved from http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/medicine/genetherapy.shtml
Li, S., & Huang, L. (2000). Nonviral gene therapy: promises and challenges. Gene Therapy, 7, 31-34.
Sheridan, C. (2011). Gene therapy finds its niche. Nature Biotechnology, 29(2), 121-128.
Zhou, H., Liu,D., & Liang, C. (2009). Challenges and Strategies: The Immune Responses in Gene Therapy. Medicinal Research Reviews, 24(6), 748-761.
