Search
Related Links

 

 

Informative Articles

Are You Wasting Time and Money at Doctor Visits?
Tips for a Better Doctor Visit 1. Have as many medical records as possible with you to document your medical condition, especially for a new visit or a consult. Go by the hospital, lab or other doctor's office and get copies. This saves the...

Avian Flu Virus
The current Asian outbreak of avian flu, also known as bird flu, is associated with the influenza A strain H5N1 flu virus. Although not the same as the Spanish flu virus that claimed 20 million to 50 million lives worldwide in the 1918 outbreak,...

HGH supplement - the Safest and Most Effective Way to Boost Your Natural HGH Levels
Human Growth Hormone Supplement remains to be the cheapest form of HGH product and becoming widely accepted because of its effective results. Unlike injection and sprays, human growth hormone supplement contains natural herbal ingredients and not...

The One Nutrient You Must Have To Stay Healthy
Even if you eat right and take a vitamin and mineral supplement you most likely are still deficient in omega 3 fatty acids. Most people just don't get enough of this vital nutrient in their diet. Here are just some of the many benefits you can...

Your Diet Won't Lower Cholesterol As Much As You Think!
Your Diet Won't Lower Cholesterol As Much As You Think! By Phil Beckett Copyright © Physique Concepts Inc. Your diet doesn't impact your cholesterol levels as much as you think it does. It doesn't increase it as much as you've been led to...

 
Basics facts about gene therapy

The genes, small pieces of DNA that contain encoded information about how to make proteins (they are some kind of 'blueprints' for the body) are the basic units of human heredity. When, for some reasons, something happens to the genes and they can't perform their normal functions, gene therapy is required. Gene therapy consists of several methods for 'repairing' the defective genes, curing the diseases that are caused by them. You can say that gene therapy 'cuts the evil from its seeds'.

As said before, gene therapy uses several methods for fixing the broken genes. The most common of them is to replace the defective genes with healthy ones. This is done using a molecule that carries the healthy gene to the desired spot. These molecules that gene therapy uses are usually modified viruses that can carry the healthy gene. Depending of the type of molecule that needs to be carried, several types of viruses are used :

Adenoviruses - they can carry DNA fragments, and then they infect the desired cells, putting the healthy DNA there. Gene therapy treatment using adenoviruses must be repeated regularly.

Retroviruses - can carry RNA molecules. They introduce the RNA inside the cells they infect, and also some enzymes. Then, the RNA molecules produces


copies of the healthy, required DNA.

This process is called reverse transcription.

Adeno - associated viruses - Gene therapy uses these viruses because they carry single-chains of DNA and introduce them in the 19th chromosome.

Herpex simplex viruses are also sometimes used, but gene therapy doesn't only depend on carrier viruses - the normal DNA can be directly inserted into the infected cells, but this method is used quite seldom. Scientists are doing some experiments with introducing artificial human chromosome inside the cells, but this still presents some difficulties.

Gene therapy can surely be the future of medicine, and it could replace traditional drug - based medicine, and it could easily heal difficult diseases, but for many people it poses some ethical and religious problems, so the whole thing is under a big question mark.

About the author:

David C Skul - CEO LinkAcquire.com and Relativity, Inc. is pleased to serve his clients through traffic generating articles and one way links. So, if you want to find out more information about Gene therapy we suggest you to click this link

 

National Library of Medicine - National Institutes of Health
Part of the National Institutes of Health, the National Library of Medicine offers access to health information for consumer, patient, and physicians ...
www.nlm.nih.gov
 
Health and Medical Information produced by doctors - MedicineNet.com
Doctor-produced health and medical information written for you to make informed decisions about your health concerns.
www.medicinenet.com
 
Medicine in the Yahoo! Directory
Collection of sites for health professionals, with sections on specific disciplines, organizations, continuing education, conferences, publications, ...
dir.yahoo.com
 
MedlinePlus Health Information from the National Library of Medicine
Health information from the National Library of Medicine. Easy access to Medline and Health topics, medical dictionaries, directories and publications.
medlineplus.gov
 
Medicine - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Medicine is a branch of health science and the sector of public life ... The practice of medicine combines both science as the evidence base and art in the ...
en.wikipedia.org
 
Journal Home - Nature Medicine
Nature Medicine has a vacancy for a Locum Assistant Editor for six months. The position involves working in all aspects of the editorial process, ...
www.nature.com
 
The New England Journal of Medicine: Research & Review Articles on ...
The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) is a weekly general medical journal that publishes new medical research findings, review articles, and editorial ...
content.nejm.org
 
eMedicine Clinical Knowledge Base
eMedicine features up-to-date, searchable, peer-reviewed medical journals, online physician reference textbooks, and a full-text article database in 62 ...
www.emedicine.com
 
Open Directory - Health: Medicine
the entire directory, only in Health/Medicine. Top: Health: Medicine (11429). Description · Medical Specialties (4888); Surgery (2265) ...
dmoz.org
 
the www virtual library biosciences medicine
www.ohsu.edu/cliniweb/wwwvl/ - Similar pages
 
Medicine - home
Bimonthly journal covering the latest results in clinical investigation relevant to hospital and office practice.
www.md-journal.com
 
Institute of Medicine
The Institute of Medicine serves as adviser to the nation to improve health.
www.iom.edu
 
ScienceDaily: Health & Medicine News
Medical Research News. Health news on everything from cancer to nutrition. Full-text, images, updated daily.
www.sciencedaily.com
 
Google Directory - Health > Medicine
Search only in Medicine Search the Web. Medicine. Health > Medicine, Go to Directory Home. Categories. Alternative Medicine (6308) Basic Sciences (66) ...
www.google.com
 
the world wide web virtual library biosciences medicine
www.mcb.harvard.edu/biopages/medicine.html - Similar pages
 
PLoS Medicine - A Peer-Reviewed Open-Access Journal
PLoS Medicine is a peer-reviewed, international, open-access journal published ... Every issue of PLoS Medicine contains a selection of readers' responses. ...
medicine.plosjournals.org
 
Medicine On-Line - Medicine Online -The International Medical Journal
Medicine Online - independent and peer reviewed journal published by Priory Medical Journals - priory.com.
www.priory.com
 
Entrez PubMed
PubMed is a service of the US National Library of Medicine that includes over 16 million citations from MEDLINE and other life science journals for ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
 
Stanford University School of Medicine
Home Page of the Stanford University School of Medicine.
med.stanford.edu
 
Medicine OnLine
Meds.com offers medical information and education on cancer (lung cancer, colon cancer, breast cancer, leukemia) and HIV / AIDS for patients, ...
www.meds.com