{"id":2211,"date":"2007-09-19T09:02:17","date_gmt":"2007-09-19T09:02:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/diyhealth.com\/?p=2211"},"modified":"2014-06-16T08:22:20","modified_gmt":"2014-06-16T08:22:20","slug":"the-deadly-side-of-gene-therapy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drprem.com\/globalhealthcare\/the-deadly-side-of-gene-therapy","title":{"rendered":"The deadly side of gene therapy"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A relatively healthy 36-year-old Jolee Mohr<\/a>, died this week after a gene therapy experiment went wrong<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Mohr was taking part in a voluntary experiment to find out if gene therapy might be a safe way to ease the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. As part of the experiment her right knee was injected with trillions of genetically engineered viruses<\/strong>. She fell ill the very next day and died three weeks later of internal bleeding and kidney failure.<\/p>\n

Targeted Genetics Corp. of Seattle, the company that sponsored the experiment has halted all work on it. U.S. health officials are investigating Mohr’s death.<\/p>\n

The concern is not just that the experiment went wrong, but is also about how much the volunteers like Mohr know of the risks involved with such experiments. The concern is understandable with over 800 gene therapy studies involving 5,000 U.S. patients<\/strong>.<\/p>

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Mohr had taken part in the experiment with the hope that she would be part of finding a cure for the chronic rheumatoid arthritis that she had suffered for 14 years.<\/p>\n

As part of the study, she would be injected with a virus that can infect cells without causing human disease, the genetically engineered virus was used as a vehicle to carry a new gene into the body. Mohr was randomly selected to get the highest dosing level <\/strong>on both injection dates of the study. After receiving the second injection, she became violently sick the very next day.<\/p>\n

After being admitted to University of Chicago Medical Center<\/strong>, Mohr experienced respiratory failure, her kidneys were shutting down and she was septic. Mohr’s death raises a lot of questions about the way experiments are conducted.<\/p>\n

Experimenters need to think of possible problems with an experiment before trying it out on human subjects. Volunteers should not be treated like guinea pigs. Hopefully Mohr’s death will not be in vain, and the medical fraternity will take up more responsibility when conducting experiments on live human beings.<\/p>\n

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