The use of recombinant DNA, stem cells and molecular science has led to gene therapies that manipulate genetic expression to treat of a host of diseases.

The therapy consists of the placement of a functional gene into the cellular material of an affected person to correct inborn errors of metabolic process, to change or repair acquired hereditary abnormalities, and to produce a new cell function.

Genetic code generates the instructions to treat a disease or disorder by placing the code into cells and creating a repaired function or restoring a missing function. Worldwide, there are thousands of medical clinical trials underway.

Numerous genetic disorders are caused by different genes working together: Diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, Parkinson's disease, heart disease, autism, Alzheimer's disease, ADD ADHD, peptic ulcers, pain and cancer.

Gene treatments are most successful when used theraputically against diseases caused by one gene. There are more than 6,000 known gene disorders caused by a sole gene.

Genetic researchers are currently exploring ways to safely treat a variety of diseases:

An assortment of inherited diseases as varied as immune deficiences, high blood pressure, ovarian cancer, renal cancer, metastatic melanoma, malignant glioma, ocular diseases and Huntington's corea.

Others include: Bubble boy disease (SCID), HIV-AIDS, blindness, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cystic fibrosis, hemophilia, muscular dystrophy and Huntington's disease.

Unregulated cell growth is the hallmark of cancer. It's not a single disease. The impairing of normal physiological functions and the spread of the cancer to other parts of the body are the targets of cancer gene therapies.

Various types of gene therapy have been developed by researchers to treat or protect against different types of cancer.

Cancer occurs because mutations in a cell that causes it to multiply out of control. Cancer gene therapies, to control unimpaired cell multiplication, make up about two-thirds of continuing gene therapy clinical trials.

The human body generates tumor suppressors that inhibit cancer. For example, P53 is a tumor suppressor when mutated causes about half of all cancers, and the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes are also suppressors, but when mutated may indicate the occurrence of breast and ovarian cancer.

Theraputic DNA was successfully transferred into individuals using the herpes simplex viral vector in prostrate cancer gene therapy. Prostrate cancer is the second leading cause of death in American males, and the most often diagnosed cancer found in men.

One half of all of cancers have been linked to a mutated, missing or inactive p53 gene, a tumor suppressor. In head and neck cancer, the loss of 9p21 gene, also implicated in heart disease and diabetes, is the most common genetic error, and occurs early in the progression to malignancy.

Diseases will be ultimately be treated by the merger of gene therapy and stem cell therapy. Stem cells can be triggered to turn into any of the body's numerous cell groups.

Gene therapy is a quickly developing type of genetic molecular treatment with the potential to deliver new cures for inherited and acquired life-threatening diseases.

It 's in accordance with the concept of inserting a gene into a person's genome, in either the complete body or in distinct parts, to alter the gene expression of that cell or group of cells, and to make use of this technology to help remedy disease.