Somatic Gene Therapy

Somatic gene therapy focuses on improving genetic illness by the manipulation of nonreproductive or somatic tissues. Excluding some of the defective cells and injecting them with a cloned wild-type gene is part of this gene therapy procedure. The corrected gene function is subsequently provided by the transgenic cells, which are transplanted into the patient’s body.

Somatic gene therapy offers the promise of successful treatment and cure for diseases that were previously deadly. It has only been used experimentally for a tiny number of genetic illnesses, and even then, therapy is complicated, demanding, and unclear.

Somatic Gene Therapy

Now we will first learn about what we mean by somatic gene, what is somatic gene therapy used for and lastly somatic cell gene therapy examples.

Somatic Gene

Except for sperm and egg cells, a somatic cell is any cell in the body. Somatic cells are diploid, which means they have two sets of chromosomes, one for each parent. Individuals may be affected by somatic cell mutations, but they are not passed on to kids.

Somatic cells are the cells of the body that are not part of the germ line, which are the cells in the sexual organs that create sperm and eggs. Somatic cells are any cells that do not have the function of creating sperm or eggs. Of course, it is essential for every living creature to exist, but it contributes nothing in terms of genetic transmission, or inheritance to the next generation. As a result, it is solely useful to the live creature and has no bearing on what occurs to the organism’s next generation.

Somatic Gene Therapy: Uses

Procedure- Somatic gene therapy is a procedure that includes introducing a normal gene into the proper cells of a person who has a hereditary condition, therefore permanently repairing the problem. Viruses (which carry the human gene in place of one of their own genes) and liposomes are the most basic techniques of transferring genes into a person’s cells (small fat-like molecules which can carry DNA into a cell). The gene or genes are introduced onto a chromosome in the nucleus of certain cells.

Bone marrow cells, which are readily separated and re-implanted, might be the target cells. Because bone marrow cells proliferate throughout a person’s life to make blood cells, this method is only effective if the gene you wish to transfer plays a biological function in the blood. A gene having a biological function in, say, the lungs, muscle, or liver would have to be delivered inside those organs. Accessing the relevant tissue, or ensuring that a gene is delivered where it is needed if it is necessary in various tissues (e.g., muscles across the body), is a key difficulty in many circumstances.

Uses- As this therapy is implanting a human gene into the somatic cells of a live person—cells that do not create the eggs and sperm that form the next generation. Somatic cell gene therapy aims to heal a condition solely in the patient and not in their offspring

Some risks are also there. It is possible that once viruses are introduced into the body, they will regain their potential to cause illness. Possibility of tumour formation. There’s a danger that if the new genes are introduced in the incorrect place in your DNA, they’ll cause a tumour to emerge.

Somatic Cell Gene Therapy: Examples

This therapy is presently focused on disorders that affect just one tissue, such as cystic fibrosis and adenosine deaminase. It is still limited but in future, it might get better.

It was first proposed as a way of implanting a fully functional copy of a gene into a person who had a hereditary condition as a consequence of only receiving badly functioning copies. Since then, several forms of somatic cell gene therapy have been researched for the treatment of illnesses including AIDS and cancer that are not caused largely by inherited genes. Over 100 clinical studies using somatic cell gene therapy have been conducted, but just a handful have been successful.

Somatic cell gene therapy’s genetic features have been mostly uncontroversial. Gene therapy is, in essence, just another medication delivery mechanism, a new technique of getting a normal human protein to the proper spot in the body. 

As a result, somatic cell gene therapy is in the same boat as other experimental medicines. Concerns have been raised, as with other medicines, that desperate patients are not actually providing informed permission and that the treatment’s potential advantages are oversold.

Conclusion

In this article, we have read what do we mean by somatic gene, somatic gene therapy, its risks and where we have been using it and about its possible future and opportunities. This therapy is still in its development stage or we can say it is more like an experimental treatment currently. However, somatic gene therapy focuses on improving genetic illness by the manipulation of nonreproductive or somatic tissues. Excluding some of the defective cells and injecting them with a cloned wild-type gene is part of this gene therapy procedure.