Man that would be great.
It could also possibly lead to cures of other diseases like, hopefully, Rheumatoid Arthritis which my wife suffers from.
Too bad that clinical trials are so far away.
The debate over the use of stem cells is being hotly contested in various parts of the world. Scientists are striving to be allowed to do research using stem cells, in order to enhance their ability to create vaccines, that will treat diseases that currently have no cure.
I have never read about using stem cells to make vaccines before.
On the other hand, many people are of the belief that using stem cells is not only immoral, but wrong, thus they oppose the use of embryoes for any sort of scientific work.
I would have thought that if something is immoral, then by definition it is wrong. Maybe something was lost in translation. What am I missing?
Well I'm sure liberals won't want to use this cure since it isn't made with embryonic stem cells.
A research group led by Dr. Yvan Torrente from the University of Milan used a combination of cell- and gene-based therapy to isolate adult human stem cells from DMD patients and engineer a genetic modification to correct the dystrophin gene. "Use of the patient's own cells would reduce the risk of implant rejection seen with transplantation of normal muscle-forming cells," explains Dr. Torrente. Muscle stem cells, identified by expression of the CD133 surface marker, were isolated from normal and dystrophic human blood and skeletal muscle. The isolated human muscle progenitors were implanted into the muscles of mice and were successfully recruited into muscle fibers. As expected, the CD133+ cells isolated from DMD patients expressed the mutated gene for dystrophin and gave rise to muscle cells that resembled muscle fibers in DMD patients.
The researchers then used a sophisticated genetic technique to repair the mutated dystrophin gene in the isolated DMD CD133+ cells so that dystrophin synthesis was restored. Importantly, intramuscular or intra-arterial delivery of the genetically corrected muscle cell progenitors resulted in significant recovery of muscle morphology, function, and dystrophin expression in a mouse model of muscular dystrophy. "These data demonstrate that genetically engineered blood or muscle-derived CD133+ cells represent a possible tool for future stem cell-based autograft applications in humans with DMD," says Dr. Torrente. The authors caution that significant additional work needs to be done prior to using this technology in humans. "Additional research will substantially enhance our understanding of the mechanisms underlying this effect and may lead to the improvement of gene and cell therapy strategies for DMD."
This research is published by Cell Press in the December issue of Cell Stem Cell. The researchers include Rachid Benchaouir, Mirella Meregalli, Andrea Farini, Marzia Belicchi, Maurizio Battistelli, and Nereo Bresolin, of the University of Milan, in Milan, Italy; Yvan Torrente of the University of Milan, in Milan, Italy, and UNISTEM, at University of Milan, in Milan, Italy; Giuseppe D'Antona and Roberto Bottinelli, of the Human Physiology Unit, University of Pavia, in Pavia, Italy; Aure´ lie Goyenvalle, of Genethon-CNRS, in Evry, France; and Luis Garcia, of Genethon-CNRS, in Evry, France. Adapted from materials provided by Cell Press.