The Gene Therapy Revolution: Fighting Leukemia with Precision

Hello healthy bees!
Trust you’re doing well and staying healthy in this season. Today, let’s talk about gene therapy and the use of recombination DNA technology in the treatment of genetic disorders and cancers.

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But first, let’s have a recap of our basic genetics. As we all know, the genome is the total DNA or genetic material of an organism. We all have DNA and that is what makes us who we are. Each human has 23 pairs of chromosomes (ie 46 chromosomes). Of the 23 pairs, 22 pairs are autosomal chromosomes and one pair is a sex chromosome.

Now, what do our autosomal and sex chromosomes do? Autosomal chromosomes are those that carry genetic codes for the production of specific proteins for our body functions. And sex chromosomes determine the sex of an offspring.

GENE THERAPY

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The concept of gene therapy dates back to the early 1960s but in recent times, there has been a lot of advancement even though it’s not to the level we hope for.

The concept of gene therapy is basically the use of recombination DNA technology to correct defective genes responsible for diseases or disorders in an organism. The whole concept of recombinant DNA technology is to insert the correct gene into a vector and introduce it into the hosts cells. This correct gene is mostly a synthesised and corrected form of the defective gene obtained from the hosts cells.

The corrected gene which is introduced into the host organism can act in 4 different ways to solve the problem.

1. It’s can be added to the defective gene which is not fully functional to enhance its activity.
2. It can be an edited version of a defective gene, thereby taking over the activity of that gene and taking over.
3. It can be used as gene replacement. To replace the gene of interest
4. Lastly, it can be used for gene inhibition, to inhibit the activity of a defective gene.

GENE THERAPY IN LEUKAEMIA

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Leukaemia as we all know is the cancer of the blood which affects the T cells. This reduces the body’s activity to fight infections as immune system gets weakened.

There are four known types of Leukaemia and they are acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia and chronic lymphocytic leukaemia.

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Over the years, there has developed of a wide range of treatments for leukaemia including chemotherapy, bone marrow transplant and even some drugs.

But today, let’s look at gene therapy in the treatment of Leukaemia. A number of recombinant drugs have been synthesised to treat Leukaemia including Intron A, Interferon-α2a (IFN-α2a), Interferon-α2b (IFN-α2b).

KYMRIAH IN LEUKAEMIA TREATMENT

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Kymriah is known to be the first FDA-approved gene therapy for leukaemia treatment. Kymriah is a somatic gene therapy that works by modifying the patients T cells and using them to target and kill leukemia cells. However, like every treatment, it has its challenges.

You can read more here; https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/9726/First-gene-therapy-approved-to-treat-leukemia

https://www.science.org/content/article/modified-t-cells-attack-leukemia-become-first-gene-therapy-approved-united-states

I hope this helps you understand the whole concept of leukaemia and it’s treatment methods. Thanks for reading!

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