BMJ  2008;336:977 (3 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39566.632859.DB

News

Gene therapy is in danger of being overhyped, expert says

Geoff Watts

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Two reports published online this week by the New England Journal of Medicine have described the use of gene therapy to correct the causes of one form of congenital blindness. Although the gains in both cases were modest, media reports have greeted them with jubilation and the suggestion that the results can be extrapolated to a wide range of eye conditions.

This reaction has prompted one researcher who recognises the value of the new work to regret that, once again, enthusiasm for gene therapy may be running dangerously ahead of its actual achievements.

Infants born with Leber’s congenital amaurosis have profound visual impairment throughout childhood and become completely blind by early middle age. Previous work has shown that in patients with this condition seven genes normally active in the cells of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) show mutations.

The two research groups—one based at the University of Pennsylvania’s Scheie Eye . . . [Full text of this article]


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The perilous alliance between subjectivism and genetic promise
Ernesto d'Aloja, et al.
bmj.com, 29 May 2008 [Full text]
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