TYPES OF GENE THERAPY: -

Gene therapy may be classified into two types 1) Germ line gene therapy 2) Somatic cell gene therapy a) Incase of germ line gene therapy germ cells that is sperms or eggs are modified by the introduction of functional genes, which are ordinarily integrated into their genomes. Therefore the change due to therapy is heritable and passed onto the later generations. This approach, heretically, is highly effective in counteracting the genetic disorders. However this option is not consider, at least for the present for application in human beings for a variety of technical and ethical reasons. b) In the case of somatic cell gene therapy the gene is introduced only in somatic cells, especially of those tissues in which expression of the concerned gene is critical for health. Expression of the introduced gene relieves symptoms of the disorder, but this effect is not heritable, as it does not involve the germ line. It is the only feasible option, and clinical trials have already started mostly for the treatment of cancer and blood disorders. GENERAL GENE THERAPY STRATEGIES 1) Gene augmentation therapy (GAT): - It is done by simple addition of functional alleles has been used to treat several inherited disorders caused by genetic deficiency of a gene product. It is also involved in transfer to cells of genes encoding toxic compounds (suicide genes) or prodrugs (reagents which confer sensitivity to subsequent treatment with a drug). It has been particularly applied to autosomal recessive disorders where even modest expression levels of an introduced gene may make a substantial difference. 2) Targeted killing of specific cells: - Artificial cell killing and immune system assisted cell killing have been popular in the treatment of cancers. It can be done by two ways. a) Direct cell killing: - it is possible if the inserted genes are expressed to produce a lethal toxin (suicide genes), or a gene encoding a prodrug is inserted, conferring susceptibility to killing by a subsequently administered drug. Alternatively selectively lytic viruses can be used. b) Indirect cell killing: - It uses immunostimulatory genes to provoke or enhance an immune response against the target cell. 3) Targeted mutation correction: - The repair of a genetic defect to restore a functional allele, is the exception, technical difficulties have meant that it is not sufficiently reliable to warrant clinical trails. 4) Targeted inhibition of gene expression: - It is suitable for treating infectious diseases and some cancers. If disease cells display a novel gene product or inappropriate expression of a gene a variety of different systems can be used specifically to block the expression of a single gene at the DNA, RNA or Protein levels.

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Gene Therapy

The term gene therapy can be defined as introduction of a normal functional gene into cells, which contain the defective allele of concerned gene with the objective of correcting a genetic disorder or an acquired disorder. The first approach in gene therapy is: - a) Identification of the gene that plays the key role in the development of a genetic disorder. b) Determination of the role of its product in health and disease. c) Isolation and cloning of the gene. d) Development of an approach for gene therapy. The genetic material may be transferred directly into cells within a patient, which is referred as in vivo gene therapy or else cells may be removed from the patient and the genetic material inserted into them, which is referred as invitro gene therapy. Apart from the two methods mentioned above there is one more method that is ex-vivo gene therapy in which genetic material is inserted into the cells just prior to transplanting the modified cells back into the patient. Major disease classes under gene therapy include: - a) Infectious diseases: - infection by a virus or bacterial pathogen b) Cancers: - uncontrolled and enormous cell division and cell proliferation as a result of activation of an oncogene or inactivation of a tumors suppressor gene or an apoptosis gene. c) Inherited disorders: - genetic deficiency of an individual gene product or genetically determined in appropriate expression of a gene. d) Immune system disorders: - includes allergies, inflammation and also autoimmune diseases in which immune system cells appropriately destroy body cells.

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Cell division

Cell division is the process by which a parent cell divides into two or more daughter cells. Cell division is usually a small segment of a larger cell cycle. This type of cell division in eukaryotes is known as mitosis, and leaves the daughter cell capable of dividing again. The corresponding sort of cell division in prokaryotes is known as binary fission. In another type of cell division present only in eukaryotes, called meiosis, a cell is permanently transformed into a gamete and cannot divide again until fertilization. For simple unicellular organisms such as the amoeba, one cell division is equivalent to reproduction-- an entire new organism is created. On a larger scale, mitotic cell division can create progeny from multicellular organisms, such as plants that grow from cuttings. Cell division also enables asexually reproducing organisms to develop from the one-celled zygote, which itself was produced by cell division from gametes. And after growth, cell division allows for continual construction and repair of the organism. A human being's body experiences about 10,000 trillion cell divisions in a lifetime. The primary concern of cell division is the maintenance of the original cell's genome. Before division can occur, the genomic information which is stored in chromosomes must be replicated, and the duplicated genome separated cleanly between cells. A great deal of cellular infrastructure is involved in keeping genomic information consistent between "generations".

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Cell biology

Cell biology (formerly cytology, from the Greek kytos, "container") is an academic discipline that studies cells – their physiological properties, their structure, the organelles they contain, interactions with their environment, their life cycle, division and death. This is done both on a microscopic and molecular level. Cell biology research encompasses both the great diversity of single-celled organisms like bacteria and protozoa, as well as the many specialized cells in multicellular organisms like humans. Knowing the components of cells and how cells work is fundamental to all biological sciences. Appreciating the similarities and differences between cell types is particularly important to the fields of cell and molecular biology as well as to biomedical fields such as cancer research and developmental biology. These fundamental similarities and differences provide a unifying theme, sometimes allowing the principles learned from studying one cell type to be extrapolated and generalized to other cell types. Hence, research in cell biology is closely related to genetics, biochemistry, molecular biology, Immunology, and developmental biology.

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Happy New Year 2010

Wish You All Happy New Year. Please Welcome the new year 2010

We are post about the Nucleic Acids - DNA, RNA -Genetics .all sources are taken from the internet we didn’t create anything or discover thing.Just we collect for you all. Thanks For visiting our blog www.biomolecules-world.blogspot.com/.Thanks for supporting us. Please support us for this coming year also. DNA,GENE,DNA VS RNA,Bio Molecules,DNA Testing centers,DNA Implementation,RNA Implementation,Genetic testing,DNA sequencing

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