New lead to safer marrow transplants
Wickelgren, I.
Science 276(5319): 1646
1997
ISSN/ISBN: 0036-8075 PMID: 9206827 Document Number: 471329
In this issue of Science, Claudio Bordignon at the San Raffaele Scientific Institute in Milan, Italy, and colleagues report the first successful human test of a gene therapy designed to halt graft-versus-host disease (GVHD). This deadly ailment, triggered in at least half of all patients who undergo bone-marrow transplants, is prompted when the donor immune cells attack the recipient's own tissues. The researchers genetically engineered the transplanted cells with a self-destruct button that allows doctors to selectively destroy them with a drug should they turn mutinous. They could consequently destroy GVHD in two of the three patients who developed it and partially eliminate it in the third without using immunosuppressive drugs.