Gene therapy involves the insertion of working copies of genes to replace those with defective or absent in the genome of an individual. This therapy is carried out in cells and tissues to treat a severe illness, acquired or hereditary.
The approaches currently available for this therapy are very different but in most studies is called gene therapy when copying adding the gene which is inserted into the genome and is introduced only in the host to compensate for the defective . On the other hand, in the case of homologous recombination, ie, to remove and replace the defective copy of the functional is replacement therapy.
Gene therapy, which is still in development, consider the following factors:
• In acquired diseases, including cancer, using different strategies such as insertion into the tumor cells of certain suicide genes, or insertion of tumor antigens to enhance immune response.
• Marking gene, which considers not complete healing of the patient, but in improving the treatment of a given disease.
• monogenic disease therapy: use in those conditions where you can not do or not efficient administration of the protein deficit. It provides the gene defective or absent.
• somatic gene therapy: This is carried out in somatic cells of an individual, so that therapy involving changes only occur in this patient.
• Therapy in vivo cell transformation takes place within the body of the patient receiving therapy.
• ex vivo therapy: cellular transformation is made from a patient tissue biopsy and then transplant the cells and transformed.
• germ line gene therapy: This is carried out in germ cells (which just sprout) in the patient, causing the changes produced by therapeutic genes would be inherited. However, this therapy is not used today because of both ethical and legal issues.
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