New Gene Therapy for Cancer Treatment

In a major scientific breakthrough, scientists in the United Kingdom have successfully tested a new form of gene therapy, ‘Base Editing’, for the first time in a patient with T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (T-ALL), a type of blood cancer.

  • The researchers used this tool to engineer a new type of T-cell that was capable of hunting down and killing cancerous T-cells.
  • In T-ALL, the T-cells, which are a class of white blood cells, equipped to hunt and neutralise threats to the body, turn against the body and end up destroying healthy cells that normally help with immunity.

T-cells

  • These are types of lymphocytes (white blood cells) that are essential part of the immune system.
  • Named so as they originate in bone marrow and undergo differentiation in thymus.
  • They are central regulators of immune response and control antibody response, activate innate immune cells and kill target cells.

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