Stem Cells By Kelly, Jimmy, Lee, Amanda, Marisa, Maria

Gene Therapy Human gene therapy is a new and unique technology that is still in its infancy, but it holds exponential promise for humanity. Unfortunately, this groundbreaking new technology may also represent a major threat to humankind because unlike vaccines, gene therapy has the potential to alter the human gene pool and change the future of humanity. It is this delicate balance between an enormous potential for benefits and catastrophic risks.

Putting Research on Hold Gene therapy was originally conceived to treat or prevent hereditary diseases. In recent years, however, genetic diseases have been largely ignored in favor of more prevalent health conditions such as cancer and HIV/AIDS. Many in the genetic disease community believe that this has occurred primarily because of the involvement of the commercial sector. Simply put, there is more money to be made in cancer and HIV/AIDS that there is in rare "orphan diseases" such as Leukodystrophy, Hemophilia, Lesch-Nyhan Syndrome or Tay-Sachs disease.

Diseases Being Tested ADA deficient SCID (severe combined immunodeficiency) X-linked SCID Gaucher’s disease Chronic granulomatous disease Fanconi’s anemia HIV-1 Cystic Fibrosis

Embryonic Stem Cells The initial cells created by a zygote are considered to be totipotent, which means totally potential, and can derive every kind of cell the body will need from them These cells can be collected (from both terminated pregnancies and frozen zygotes left over from in vitro fertilization)

Somatic Cell Nuclear Transfer SCNT may be another way that pluripotent stem cells could be isolated HOW??? 1. Researchers take a normal animal egg cell and remove the nucleus.The material left behind in the egg cell contains nutrients and other energy- producing materials that are essential for embryo development. 2.Then a somatic cell is placed next to the egg from which the nucleus had been removed, and the two are fused. The resulting fused cell has the full potential to develop into an entire animal 3.These cells will soon form a blastocyst. Cells from the inner cell mass of this blastocyst could, in theory, be used to develop pluripotent stem cell

Vector Retroviral vectors based on murine leukemia viruses have been most extensively used to transduce Hematopoietic stem cells, since these vectors are well characterized and can integrate into the target cell genome, allowing transmission of the vector to daughter cells in vivo

Adult Stem Cell Transplants Samples of Stem Cells are collected (from either umbilical cord blood or bone marrow) Isolate unaffected (undifferentiated) cells Cells are grown in culture Stem cells are then inserted into the bone marrow The stem cells can then both proliferate and differentiate

Bone Marrow Transplants Normal bone marrow transplants involve both stem cells and differentiated cells These cells have a normal life span Therefore, the procedure must be repeated several times This process is a very high risk surgery (approximately 50% death rate)

Benefits of Stem Cell Transplants These stem cells are multipotent (specialized stem cells) These transplants allow for the growth of additional stem cells as well as the differentiation to different blood cell types If successful, only one transplant is required

Ethics Of Stem Cell Therapy The most common and easiest way to obtain stem cells is through human embryos. In the process of obtaining these stem cells the embryo is destroyed. Most in the pro-life movement regard an embryo to be a full human being with all of the rights of any person. Thus any procedure that injures or kills an embryo is assault or murder of a human. Abortion foes, moreover, fear that allowing experimentation on embryos creates a "slippery slope" that could be used to justify abortions. Proponents of the research maintain that the embryo doesn't have moral status, he added, and that manipulating or destroying embryos is justified, particularly if it is done to achieve a greater good.

Questioning Ethics Should we allow human gene therapy to be diverted from its important therapeutic path of disease prevention to unnecessary "enhancement" therapy? At what price to human suffering? Do we as a society have the responsibility to safeguard the human gene pool? Is diversity necessary?