Gene+Therapy

= What is gene therapy? How does gene therapy work? =

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Genes are what through chromosomes act as the units of heredity. They are used to send instructions on how to make proteins, through specific sequences. On the other hand, proteins are the ones that make up the life functions and enable the majority of cellular structures. The problem arises when the genes are altered causing the proteins to be unable to send the instructions for the functions, and this is a genetic disorder.1

Gene therapies are the solutions to these problems and could be seen as ‘the use of genes as medicine’. It is used to repair or changing a faulty gene copy and does this by transferring a therapeutic gene copy into specific cells of an individual.2 Throughout this process, there are many techniques which composite this therapy, they can insert a normal gene into a nonspecific location to replace a nonfunctional gene; this is a very common method. Other techniques include changing an abnormal gene for a normal gene or repair this gene by selective reverse mutation, and altering the regulation of a particular gene.1

To conclude, gene therapy is repairing or replacing a genetic disorder in our genes.1

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