Given the events of the past year, it might seem like the world is heading for the abyss, but science gives us a lot of light to fight the shadows. Take, for example, the case of two children who were rescued from a previously incurable form of leukemia. Thanks to gene editing technology, their lives are no longer threatened.
New treatment method
According to records in the journal Science Translational Medicine, a European team of researchers reports that after using the new treatment, leukemia subsided after 12 and 18 months in two young girls. In this case, the white blood cells were genetically engineered to give them the ability to effectively fight off cancer cells.
In the documents, the researchers note that molecular remission was achieved within 28 days, which is considered an incredibly short period of time. Currently, the girls do not show any signs of acute lymphocytic leukemia, which they once had.
Without the hard work of the team at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London and the French firm Biotech, these young children probably would not have made it to this year.
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How gene editing works
This method has been previously used by various pharmaceutical companies, but white cells were extracted from the blood of patients who were being treated. In this case, the killer cells were taken from healthy donors and then modified, which gave them the ability to attack cancer cells in patients.
While this could have caused the girls' immune systems to react negatively to foreign white blood cells injected into their bodies and destroy them, this did not happen, at least initially.
The team notes that the first little patient did have a poor immune response to the treatment two months after it was given, but she is doing well after steroid use and bone marrow transplantation.
One of the reasons this new method has been tested on children is that they don't have a lot of white blood cells at that age. Extracting even a small number of them for further editing could weaken their immune systems to dangerous levels.
The scourge of our time
The fact that this method appears to be effective suggests that it may be a truly “universal” therapy that works for everyone, regardless of age or the relative strength of the immune system. More research is needed to confirm this method works for others, including older children and adults, but this trial has been incredibly successful so far.
Cancer has hundreds of forms, and they all sneak past our immune systems in various ways and destroy our bodies. While there has been a resurgence of more effective and inventive cancer treatments, it remains the scourge of our time.
But this study shows that doctors are working in the right direction.
Anna Pismenna