In gene therapy an attempt is made to transfer a "normal" gene into the cells of a person who lacks copies of the "normal" gene. Why would scientists and the government be more receptive to somatic gene therapy than to germline gene therapy?

In gene therapy an attempt is made to transfer a "normal" gene into the cells of a person who lacks copies of the "normal" gene. Why would scientists and the government be more receptive to somatic gene therapy than to germline gene therapy?

Human Heredity: Principles and Issues (MindTap Course List)

11th Edition

ISBN:9781305251052

Author:Michael Cummings

Publisher:Michael Cummings

Chapter8: The Structure, Replication, And Chromosomal Organization Of Dna

Section: Chapter Questions

Problem 3CS: Should he go ahead and enroll on the chance that he would receive the DNA vaccine and that it would...

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Should he go ahead and enroll on the chance that he would receive the DNA vaccine and that it would be more effective than chemotherapy? Bruce and his parents moved to a semi-tropical region of the United States when he was about 3 years old. He loved to be outside year-round and swim, surf, snorkel, and play baseball. Bruce was fair-skinned, and in his childhood years, was sunburned quite often. In his teen years, he began using sunscreens, and although he never tanned very much, he did not have the painful sunburns of his younger years. After graduation from the local community college, Bruce wanted an outdoor job and was hired at a dive shop. He took people out to one of the local reefs to snorkel and scuba dive. He didnt give a second thought to sun exposure because he used sunscreen. His employer did not provide health insurance, so Bruce did not go for annual checkups, and tried to stay in good health. In his late 20s, Bruce was injured trying to keep a tourist from getting caught between the dive boat and the dock. He went to an internist, who treated his injury and told Bruce he was going to give him a complete physical exam. During the exam, the internist noticed a discolored patch of skin on Bruces back. She told him that she suspected Bruce had skin cancer and referred him to a dermatologist, who biopsied the patch. At a follow-up visit, Bruce was told that he had melanoma, a deadly form of skin cancer. Further testing revealed that the melanoma had spread to his liver and his lungs. The dermatologist explained that treatment options at this stage are limited. The drugs available for chemotherapy have only temporary effects, and surgery is not effective for melanoma at this stage. The dermatologist recommended that Bruce consider entering a clinical trial that was testing a DNA vaccine for melanoma treatment. These vaccines deliver DNA encoding a gene expressed by the cancer cells to the immune system. This primes the immune system to respond by producing large quantities of antibodies that destroy melanoma cells wherever they occur in the body. A clinical trial using one such DNA vaccine was being conducted at a nearby medical center, and Bruce decided to participate. At the study clinic, Bruce learned that he would be in a Phase Ill trial, comparing the DNA vaccine against the standard treatment, which is chemotherapy, and that he would be randomly assigned to receive either the DNA vaccine or the chemotherapy. He was disappointed to learn this. He thought he would be receiving the DNA vaccine.
Our government has finite funds to devote to cancer research.Discuss which of the following areas of research you think shouldreceive the most funding.A. Identifying and characterizing oncogenes and tumorsuppressorgenesB. Identifying agents in our environment that cause cancerC. Identifying viruses that cause cancer D. Devising methods aimed at killing cancer cells in the bodyE. Informing the public of the risks involved in exposure tocarcinogensIn the long run, in which of these areas would you expect successfulresearch to be the most effective in decreasing human mortalitydue to cancer?
Why are cancers considered to be clonal in origin? OA. They are considered clonal in origin because they usually start out as a group of cells that undergoes mutation to lose control of cell division. OR They are considered clonal in origin because they have been important in the biotechnology industry for cloning genes. A They are considered clonal in origin because they usually are used in cloning experiments in laboratories that study cancer. OC. O D.hey are considered clonal in origin because they usually originate as a single cell that has acquired sufficient mutations to become cancerous. The description of "clonal" is actually a term coined by someone who really liked the Star Wars movies.
A patient comes into your clinic exhibiting generic cancer symptoms. In order to help form a diagnosis, you ask about patient history and they tell you that they worked for years in an agricultural job, primarily in handling food for large bovine animals and then later working with insect pesticide treatment of grain fields. You decide to test for elevated levels of the environmental agent(s) in their body and focus your cancer diagnosis on based on the established associations of epigentic effects and cancer. O nickel and cadmium; stomach and skin cancer O benzene; breast, prostate and thyroid cancer O polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and benzene; lung, breast, stomach and skin cancer O arsenic and endocrine disruptors; skin, bladder, liver and kidney cancer
Many human cancers result when a normal gene mutates and leads to uncontrolled growth (a tumor). Genesthat cause cancer when they mutate are called oncogenes. Chemotherapy is effective against many tumorsbecause it targets rapidly dividing cells and kills them.Unfortunately, chemotherapy has many side effects,such as hair loss or nausea, because it also kills many ofour normal cells that are rapidly dividing, such as thosein the hair follicles or stomach lining.Many scientists and large pharmaceutical companiesare excited about the prospects of exploiting theRNAi pathway to selectively inhibit oncogenes in lifethreatening tumors. Explain in very general terms howgene-silencing therapy might work to treat cancer andwhy this type of therapy would have fewer side effectsthan chemotherapy
Proto-oncogenes can be converted to oncogenes in a numberof different ways. In some cases, the proto-oncogene itselfbecomes amplified up to hundreds of times in a cancer cell.An example is the cyclin D1 gene, which is amplified in somecancers. In other cases, the proto-oncogene may be mutatedin a limited number of specific ways, leading to alterations inthe gene product’s structure. The ras gene is an example of aproto-oncogene that becomes oncogenic after suffering pointmutations in specific regions of the gene. Explain why thesetwo proto-oncogenes (cyclin D1 and ras) undergo such differentalterations to convert them into oncogenes
What rights does a cell donor have to stem cell lines or technologies created from cells they have donated? Should tissue donors share in the commercial potential and monetary awards of stem cell line created from their cells?
/20. In class, we discussed diffferent types of genetic change that can cause a normal gene (proto- oncogene) to become a cancer-causing gene (oncogene), Which of the following would not be a cause? A) translocation or transposition (movement of DNA within the same genome) B) gene ampliffication (increased number of copies of a given gene) C) epigenetic change D) point mutation that changes the gene's product E) loss of telomeres during DNA replication ancer?
Which of the following is a true statement? BRCA-1 and BRCA-2 mutations decrease risk of breast as well as ovarian cancer 4 If a woman has all of the major risk factors for breast cancer she will inevitably be diagnosed with breast cancer O Mammography is more accurate in postmenopausal women since breasts are not as glandular and dense O Having children at any age is protects a woman from getting breast cancer Previo MacBook Pro Next ▸
Pinpointing a disease gene requires a combination of approaches. Mutations in the XIAP gene are known to cause a serious condition called X-linked lymphoproliferative disease (XLPD). In the case of XLPD, in which the blood contains too many lymphocytes (white blood cells of the immune system), crowding out the oxygen-carrying red blood cells and damaging the liver. When compairing the XIAP amino acid sequence of one affected patient to other human and animal standard RefSeq, the patient has an amino acid substitution at position 203, from cystenine (C) to tyrosing (Y). This evolutionary conservation suggests Group of answer choices that the standard RefSeq does not provide enough information to determine a possible cause of XIAP function. mutations in the XIAP gene and XLPD are not associated. that the mutation in the affected patient has no impact on XIAP function. that the mutation in the affected patient might alter XIAP function.
What percentage of cells in an organ or a tissue need toexpress a therapeutic gene to alleviate the effects of agenetic disorder?
. The website CBioPortal (http://www.cbioportal.org)is an exceptionally useful program for visualizing thecancer genes and genomes of tumors from thousandsof patients with different kinds of cancer that havebeen analyzed by whole genome sequencing and insome cases, by RNA-Seq.Go the the CBioPortal site and click All underSelect Cancer Study and in Enter Gene Set typePTEN, then hit Submit. On the page that is returnedyou will see how the coding region of the PTEN geneis altered in tumors investigated in the various studies.Hitting the tab Mutations will let you see the detailsof these mutations relative to the PTEN protein, whilethe tab Expression lets you see how the gene’s expression (in terms of cDNA reads) is altered in individual tumor samples.a. Is PTEN an oncogene or a tumor suppressor gene?What kinds of evidence lead you to this conclusion?b. What kinds of cancer are most likely to involvealterations of PTEN?c. How would you identify patients whose tumorcells are particularly…