THERE was more bad news for gene therapists this week. It turns out that another of the favourite viruses in their toolkit has a disturbing habit of landing in or near healthy genes, suggesting gene disruption might be a common problem in gene therapy.
“What this means for human trials must be assessed on a disease-by-disease basis,” says Mark Kay of Stanford University in California, who led the study. “It raises the bar of risk somewhat. But how much higher it is raised is still unclear.”
The potential dangers of gene therapy hit the headlines recently after 2 out of…
