Gene therapy converts dead bone graft to new, living tissue

Hmmm,, bleeding edge? Grafts? I seem to recall that pigs are the best subjects for transplants and squealing protests are hard to ignore even in Deaf messageboards.
Which way does a pig's tail curl? Let me know when I leave, okay?
Ooga booga.
 
Levonian said:
So someday soon it will be possible eliminate the connexion-26 mutation which causes deafness, and there will be no more deaf people? :tears: :cry: :sadwave:
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Why cry if theres no more deaf people? Thats good news if deafness is cureable. If you dont like to hear ear plugs in your ears and you wont hear a sound. OR put CEMENT in your ears and you wont hear forever.
 
Codger said:
Malignent cells are cells with defective chromosomes. The part that tells the cell when, and how often to reproduce, and tell the cell to die, are defective. A virus altered with the right gene pieces inserted will "infect" the malignant cells and make them behave normally. It is really more complicated, so maybe Magatsu can expound on this for us?
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Meg said:
I understand but what if the malignent cells are right on bloodstream and the blood carries some of cells away to other parts of the body? Wouldnt this work more successfully if the malignent cells are in one place out of danger of spreading? It sounds complicated as I cant seem to find right words to ask this question?
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Codger said:
I am certainly not a genetics expert. But, the viruses will be sequenced with the repair genes and given a finite reproductive life. They will be tuned to seek out the defective cells, wherever they are in the body, insert the corrected gene, then die.

Magatsu! Halp!!!! :ugh2:
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I honestly cannot claim that I am an expert in this subject either since I didn't spend enough time on genetic subject (I just started three months ago). But I can try my best to explain it in layman's term.

There are different debates about how does cancer started. I will use my own 'view' based off the facts that I found thru researching so please bear with me for a moment even if my 'view' completely opposites from what you believe or know.

From what I understand that cancer cells are mutated from our healthy cells due to different reasons... Like healthy cells, cancer cells can reproduce as many as it can. Ok now I can use the prostate issue as example.... In normal cases, the division of cells in the prostate to make new cells is under strict control. How? The control is operated by our genes inside each cell, which are stored in chromosomes. As you may or may not already aware that the genes themselves are made up of DNA & RNA, the master genetic code systems. So if the genes are/were damaged by different kind of reasons such as Benzene (petrol additive - chemical in cigarette), the control over the cell division will be more likely lost in one or more particular cell(s).

Meg, there are two different 'tumor'.. One is benign tumor which only grows in its local area... even though it can get bigger if upon chance but it cannot spread. Other is malignant tumor that can spread to other body area.. that is cancer. That's where some people got confused about its spreadable and whatsnot. Finally to answer Meg's question, the process of cancer that spread to other area is called "Metastasis"... it means only malignant tumors such as cancer can metastasize. To my understanding is that cancer can spread to virtually any area of the body. It also takes up other cells' nourishment, which easily depriving these cells so cancer cells can continue to grow. These growing cells can mutate or rather, 'clump' up form into a tumor. Ok, I can use this topic as example... You see, as what Codger said, we can use the genetic 'tool' to curb Metastatsis and its processing chemical which possibly will stop the cancer cells on its track by insert the 'virus' or 'genes' to strip/block/inhibits the Metastatsis 'gene' code.

I use few examples from this link: http://www.cancernews.com/category.asp?cat=20 in this post -- since I forget how to spell few words. bah.

Meg & Codger, I hope my answer is helpful...
 
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ravensteve1961 said:
Why cry if theres no more deaf people? Thats good news if deafness is cureable.
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Well over 95% of the users of this board would probably disagree with you.
 
Levonian said:
Well over 95% of the users of this board would probably disagree with you.
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I am going to be first or second person who disagree with ravensteve about that.
 
Thanks Magatsu

Stemcell research is showing itself in tumor therapy too. Not the cells harvested from dead babies (I'll not get into my feelings about that), but the rogue native stemcells that propagate brain tumors. Researchers are finding that rogue stemcells can clone a removed tumor and they are trying to find markers to determine which of the stem cells are rogue and which are normal. This is a first step at getting a target for the genetic "bullet" to strike. When the causative stemcells are removed, the tumor becomes benign, and removal is permanent.

On the note of the cure for deafness: Sigh. For some people this is a dream. A star worth reaching for. Would I hope that my son could take a therapy shot or two and never have to deal with being deaf? Yes. Would I, if God granted me the power of the healing touch give the gift of hearing to all who wanted it? Yes. Would I force it on anyone, or belittle anyone who did not? Absolutely not. Many, many people do quite well all their lives, or any portion of their lives without their hearing. To me, sight would be a more worthy sense to restore. Imagine rejuvination of an atrophied optic nerve. Or blindness prevention. Or even heart disease prevention through the use of gene/stemcell therapy.

I must ask a question though. How many would want to restore their hearing if it meant that a child somewhere had to die so that you could have "ear" transplants? Certainly not me.
 
what major are u ?? are u bisopy (mispell??) you sound alike being a dr or something Magatsu
 
Codger said:
Stemcell research is showing itself in tumor therapy too. Not the cells harvested from dead babies (I'll not get into my feelings about that), but the rogue native stemcells that propagate brain tumors. Researchers are finding that rogue stemcells can clone a removed tumor and they are trying to find markers to determine which of the stem cells are rogue and which are normal. This is a first step at getting a target for the genetic "bullet" to strike. When the causative stemcells are removed, the tumor becomes benign, and removal is permanent.
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I read about it as well. Was that study by German scientists?

I realized that I made a error in my previous post. Here's correction: "To answer Meg's question".

Humblegirl said:
what major are u ?? are u bisopy (mispell??) you sound alike being a dr or something Magatsu
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You mean bioscopy or biopsy? About major, it is Osteopathic medicine. I have two 'off-campus' courses (Genetic and Nanotechnology), where I enrolled at for Osteopathic medicine as doctor-student does not cover these subjects so I registered at others to access the courses. Nanotechnology is my favorite subject ever since I was approx 16 years old but it is sooo hard for me to learn. I probably will have to drop the Nanotechnology course... until I graduate then I can make a decision if I should go back and get a degree in that subject or not.
 
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ravensteve1961 said:
Magatsu you are selfish. There are people who would give anything to get their hearing back.
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Um, you are selfish about it too.

I was saying that I don't agree with you that cure for deafness is good news. Again.. like what Codger said, if you want to cure your deafness then by all means, do it. But for me, naw.
 
ravensteve1961 said:
Magatsu you are selfish. There are people who would give anything to get their hearing back.
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That’s different. Restoring lost hearing through hair cell regeneration is a worthwhile pursuit. Nobody in their right mind would suggest that an effective treatment for deafness should be withheld from anybody who wants it. Magatsu and I are talking about the eradication of hereditary deafness through what amounts to essentially AG Bellian eugenics. Nobody likes eugenics—it’s a nasty business. You may have heard of a wacky little guy who lived in the middle of the last century named Adolf Hitler. He was a big fan of eugenics, and if he had his way, it would have been implemented on a global scale. Fortunately, we were able to put a stop to his fun-lovin’ antics. But the sad fact is that one out of every 35 people in the world carry the genome for hereditary deafness, and about 90% of these people would not pass it on to their offspring if it were possible to selectively not do so. Which is tragic, because the world would be a devastatingly boring place if everybody were a blonde haired, blue-eyed ubermensch.

Hey whaddaya know—that was my 1,500th post! :mrgreen: Guess that means I get to sneak a little mini half-dedication in there. Gotta dedicate it to my wife again, especially after the bombshell she dropped last night. Love ya, baby doll—and I’m sorry I drank every last drop of alcohol in the house when I found out you missed your period. I guess you could say the party’s over, so I had to go out with a bang. :dizzy:
 
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Magatsu, the research was by Pediatric brain surgeon Peter Dirks of Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto and Michael Clarke of University of Michigan Medical School.

Levonian said:
That’s different. Restoring lost hearing through hair cell regeneration is a worthwhile pursuit. Nobody in their right mind would suggest that an effective treatment for deafness should be withheld from anybody who wants it. Magatsu and I are talking about the eradication of hereditary deafness through what amounts to essentially AG Bellian eugenics. Nobody likes eugenics—it’s a nasty business. You may have heard of a wacky little guy who lived in the middle of the last century named Adolf Hitler. He was a big fan of eugenics, and if he had his way, it would have been implemented on a global scale. Fortunately, we were able to put a stop to his fun-lovin’ antics. But the sad fact is that one out of every 35 people in the world carry the genome for hereditary deafness, and about 90% of these people would not pass it on to their offspring if it were possible to selectively not do so. Which is tragic, because the world would be a devastatingly boring place if everybody were a blonde haired, blue-eyed ubermensch.
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I agree with you Levonian. Notice of my son I said use after his birth therapy, not change hes genetic code. THAT is not what gene therapy is about, but it is the slippery slope you approach when you mess with genes, as well as with stem cell research. It is like giveing an expecting mother a test that can tell if there is maybe a 50% chance her baby will be born with a birth defect then councoling her to abort. Nope, that is wrong as killing girl babies in China. So we have a test that shows a baby will be born deaf, so now we can select only "normal" babies to live? Nope, that is wrong.
 
Wow, interesting posts here! :eek2:

Ravensteve, I dont care about to have hearing back but cure cancer is most important to save people´s risk life. Deaf?????
 
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