Medical Interventions 2.2

• Gene Therapy is a type of disease treatment in which faulty genetic switches that are making things go wrong.
• Gene therapy has the potential to eradicate certain inherited diseases by providing people affected with diseases with normals genes that will produce what the body needs
• Ethical concerns involve the creation of “designer babies.”
• In vitro fertilization is a procedure in which gametes are fertilized in a dish in the laboratory and the resulting zygote is implanted in the uterus for development
• A vector is an agent (a plasmid or virus) that carries modified genetic material from one organism to another
• Different types of vectors include retroviruses, adenoviruses, adeno-associated viruses, heroes simplex viruses, liposomes and naked DNA.
• Retrovirus - A virus whose RNA genome is reverse transcribed into DNA upon entry into host cells. The DNA can then be integrated into the chromosomal DNA of the cell.
• Liposomes – Artificial vesicles made up of phospholipids that encapsulate drugs and deliver them directly to target tissues.
• Adeno-Associated Virus – A small parvovirus that infects humans but does not cause any symptoms. It integrates its own DNA into the human genome where it remains latent until activated by other viruses.
• Why are many vectors viruses?


  This is because the entire existence of viruses involved finding a specific cell types and delivering genetic material to it.
• Vectors have been used to treat diseases such as cystic fibrosis, haemophilia, sickle cell disease, diabetes mellitus type 1, HIV/AIDS, cancer and inherited blindness.
• Therapeutic Cloning is the cloning of human cells by nuclear transplantation
• An example of therapeutic cloning is the replacement of body cells/organs damaged by disease
• Reproductive cloning is used to create an organism that is genetically identical to an existing organism
• Inseminate means to transfer sperm into the female reproductive tract artificallh
• Retrovirus carries genetic material in the form of RNA