BUBBLE BOY CURE
Associated Press Wire Feed ^ | June 27, 2002 | PAUL RECER
Posted on Thursday, June 27, 2002 3:53:16 PM by NYer
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A single injection of genetically modified stem cells is all it took to cure two children of a complex form of an inherited immune system disorder often referred to as the “bubble boy disease,” researchers report.
An experimental technique that altered genes in bone marrow stem cells restored the immune systems of the children, researchers from Italy and Israel said in a study appearing in the journal Science. The children were born with what experts said was the most complex form of severe combined immunodeficiency disorder, or SCID.
“Both children have been cured but … both will be closely followed to see how it develops in the future,” said Maria Grazia Roncarolo of the San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy in Milan, Italy. The children, who were seven months and 2 1/2 years old when the therapy began, were released with healthy, functioning immune systems between 15 months and 24 months ago, Roncarolo said in Milan.
via BUBBLE BOY CURE.
