Imperial College London
Alternate

DrMichaelThemis

Faculty of Natural Sciences, Department of Life Sciences (Silwood Park)

Honorary Lecturer
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)1895 267 252m.themis

 
 
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Location

 

Workspace 15Sir Alexander Fleming BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Waddington:2004:10.1038/sj.gt.3302375,
author = {Waddington, SN and Kennea, NL and Buckley, SMK and Gregory, LG and Themis, M and Coutelle, C},
doi = {10.1038/sj.gt.3302375},
journal = {Gene Ther},
pages = {S92--S97},
title = {Fetal and neonatal gene therapy: benefits and pitfalls.},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302375},
volume = {11 Suppl 1},
year = {2004}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - The current approaches to gene therapy of monogenetic diseases into mature organisms are confronted with several problems including the following: (1) the underlying genetic defect may have already caused irreversible pathological changes; (2) the level of sufficient protein expression to ameliorate or prevent the disease requires prohibitively large amounts of gene delivery vector; (3) adult tissues may be poorly infected by conventional vector systems dependent upon cellular proliferation for optimal infection, for example, oncoretrovirus vectors; (4) immune responses, either pre-existing or developing following vector delivery, may rapidly eliminate transgenic protein expression and prevent future effective intervention. Early gene transfer, in the neonatal or even fetal period, may overcome some or all of these obstacles. The mammalian fetus enjoys a uniquely protected environment in the womb, bathed in a biochemically and physically supportive fluid devoid of myriad extra-uterine pathogens. Strong physical and chemical barriers to infection might, perhaps, impede the frenetic cell division. The physical support and the biochemical support provided by the fetal-maternal placental interface may, therefore, minimize the onset of genetic diseases manifest early in life. The fetal organism must prepare itself for birth, but lacking a mature adaptive immune system may depend upon more primordial immune defences. It is the nature of these defences, and the vulnerabilities they protect, that are poorly understood in the context of gene therapy and might provide useful information for approaches to gene therapy in the young, as well as perhaps the mature organism.
AU  - Waddington,SN
AU  - Kennea,NL
AU  - Buckley,SMK
AU  - Gregory,LG
AU  - Themis,M
AU  - Coutelle,C
DO  - 10.1038/sj.gt.3302375
EP  - 97
PY  - 2004///
SN  - 0969-7128
SP  - 92
TI  - Fetal and neonatal gene therapy: benefits and pitfalls.
T2  - Gene Ther
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sj.gt.3302375
UR  - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15454963
VL  - 11 Suppl 1
ER  -
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