Stem Cells Hereditary Diseases
Hereditary diseases have long been a problem plaguing the medical profession due to the inherent difficulties associated with combating both their development in a growing organism as well as the potential for them to be passed on from parent to offspring. The advent and subsequent development of stem cells in the medical world has opened up a realm of new possibilities for many researchers, however, both in the form of germ line therapy and somatic gene therapy.
Germ Line Therapy
The essence of germ line therapy comes from modifying actual heritable traits present in germ cells (such as sperm and egg gametes) that can be passed down from one generation to the next. This form of treatment has been seen as highly advantageous in many ways over other treatments as it can both effectively eliminate a hereditary disease before it even begins to develop in an individual while at the same time prevent the disease from being transmitted to additional offspring.
Unfortunately due to the fact that this particular type of treatment involves the direct modification of gamete cells it has met substantial opposition to counter its support from a number of people worldwide as it effectively modifies pre-set standard DNA chains in order to eliminate undesirable attributes. Further, due to the fact that any modification of a germ cell in this sense would require an in-depth understanding of the target subject’s genome and what each individual aspect corresponds to this can make pinpointing and eliminating specific genetic code challenging at best.
Somatic Cell Therapy
Unlike the heritable cells generated from germ line therapy, somatic cell therapy works to treat specific cells affected with an inherited disease without generating any heritable characteristics. Many times somatic cell therapies come in the form of modified viruses designed specifically to target key DNA lines in infected cells and eliminate the trouble zone in order to cure an ailment. Alternatively they can also be used to generate necessary cells or tissues that would also otherwise not be present due to a hereditary problem, allowing for more immediate treatment to occur.
While somatic cell therapy has generally been much more welcomed by most social and scientific groups due to the fact it has no long-term heritable effects upon a body at the same time it is for that very reason that it has some significant drawbacks. In many cases somatic cell therapy must continue for extended periods (and sometimes indefinitely) in order to function properly due to no real change occurring within a targeted cell and a direct treatment, while effective, may never actually cure a hereditary disease from recurring due to the fact that they are generally coded into an individual’s DNA from the time of their initial conception.
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