Gene therapy find cures

[Guest guest]

This article by Carolyn Y of the Boston Globe is interesting because it

sheds light on how close we are coming to a cure for just about everything with

gene therapy. It was in New York Times today, but I can't guarantee how long it

will be available.

A blind boy now sees. I'm printing it for posterity. For me that means that 8'

pile of things I have printed. Xerox should be beholden to me and if you have

stock in HP, then I am part of the reason your stock is solid because of the

amount of printers and ink cartridges I have bought. Think of me when you cash

your divident check. LOL The article is not as long as it looks, just click on

print and you will get an easier copy to read or to email to someone else.

http://tinyurl.com/bv57tf

Wednesday, April 30, 2008 - 13:57 in Biology & Nature

A nationwide team of researchers, funded in part by the National Human Genome

Research Institute (NHGRI), one of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), has

produced the first sequence-based map of large-scale structural variation across

the human genome. The work, published in the journal Nature, provides a starting

point to examine how such DNA variation contributes to human health and disease.

Other recently created maps, such as the HapMap, have catalogued the patterns of

small-scale variations in the genome that involve single DNA letters, or bases.

However, the scientific community has been eagerly awaiting the creation of

additional types of maps in light of findings that larger scale differences

account for a great deal of the common genetic variation among individuals and

between populations, and may account for a significant fraction of disease.

While previous work has identified structural variation in the human genome, a

sequence-based map provides much finer resolution and location information.

Large-scale structural variations are differences in the genome among people

that range from a few thousand to a few million DNA bases. Some are gains or

losses of stretches of genome sequence. Others appear as re-arrangements of

stretches of sequence. Already, some structural variations have been linked to

individual differences in susceptibility to the human immunodeficiency virus

(HIV), risk of coronary heart disease, as well as to schizophrenia and autism.

Researchers hope the new map will open the door to uncovering the functions of

structural variants in even more conditions.

http://tinyurl.com/db5spg

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) has reported results from its first comprehensive

study which focused on the deadly brain cancer glioblastoma. The findings are

reported in the Sept. 4, 2008, advance edition of Nature.

The TCGA team, comprised of more than 100 investigators from seven cancer

centers and research institutions throughout the country, analyzed 601 genes in

tumor samples from 91 glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) patients.

Investigators at the s Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and University of

Southern California, members of the TCGA team, studied 2000 genes.

They reported findings on the MGMT gene, first linked to GBM in 1998 by s

Hopkins investigators who found it was altered by a cellular process known as

methylation. In 2002, they discovered that the gene alteration makes brain

cancer cells more responsive to anticancer drugs known as alkylating agents.

While brain cancer patients with the MGMT alteration respond better to the

commonly-used alkylating agent temozolomide, the new TCGA research found that

treatment also appears to cause mutations in other genes, known as mismatch

repair genes, essential to DNA repair. These mutations, they believe, lead to

recurrence of the cancer, and these recurrent tumors contain unusually high

numbers of gene mutations, making them resistant to treatment.

The investigators stress that treatment with temozolomide and radiation therapy

is still the most effective therapy for glioblastoma patients.

" These current findings should help us devise new therapies that minimize the

role MGMT plays in cancer recurrence, " says Baylin, M.D., deputy

director of the s Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center and director of this portion

of the TCGA study.

Brain cancer affects more than 21,000 people in the United States each year. GBM

is the most common and lethal form of brain cancer, with most patients surviving

just 14 months from the time of diagnosis.

The TCGA is funded by the National Cancer Institute (NIH) and National Human

Genome Research Institute. The program began in 2006 to accelerate understanding

of the molecular basis of cancer through full-scale, systematic studies of the

human gene changes involved in all types of cancer. GBM is the first cancer

studied under the program. A report of the complete findings from the study can

be found on the National Cancer Institute's Web site.

" This type of comprehensive, coordinated analysis of unprecedented

multidimensional data is made possible by advanced technologies utilized by

teams of scientists driven to solve complex questions, " said NCI director

E. Niederhuber, M.D. in a NIH statement. " It will now fall to a dedicated cadre

of laboratory scientists to turn this important information into new life-saving

therapies and diagnostics for cancer. "

Source: s Hopkins Medical Institutions

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Best Cancer Hospitals by rank:

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Visual tour of the top hospital

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Info on INNO 406 in trial

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/129240.php

Blessings,

Lottie