GENE THERAPY HAS ENCOUNTERED
MANY UNEXPECTED OBSTACLE
by David Lore
Twenty months ago, scientists
announced the mapping of the human genome, an achievement
heralded as one of the greatest in science.
Now comes the hangover from this supernova of optimism.
The Council for Responsible Genetics this month called for
a moratorium on gene-therapy experimentation because of
the death of an 18-year-old Pennsylvania patient three years
ago and the recent case of a 3-year-old French toddler who
developed leukemia after treatment. "Biological characteristics
or traits usually depend on interactions among many genes,
and more importantly, the activity of genes is affected
by various processes that occur both inside the organism
and in its surroundings," said the council. "This
means that scientists cannot predict the full effect that
any gene modification will have on the traits of people
or other organisms."
A governmental advisory committee last week came out against
such a moratorium, but it's clear that concerns are growing.
There's nothing inevitable about gene therapy or other aspects
of the so-called gene revolution, said Philip Bereano, a
council board member, during a forum on designer genes earlier
this month at COSI Columbus.
"There is no (one) future," he said. "The
future depends on public and private choices."
Gene therapy ranks low in terms of public-health needs,
but is being pushed by profit motivations and the ambition
of top scientists to win a Nobel Prize, said Bereano, a
professor of engineering technology at the University of
Washington. Bioethicist Erik Juengst from Case Western Reserve
University, the other
member of the panel, thinks both gene testing and gene therapy
have been oversold to desperate patients and their families.
"There's not a great track record yet on gene therapy,"
he said. "It's turned out to be more complicated than
once thought." Juengst wishes that people would stop
looking at genetic testing as a
crystal ball.
"These tests are more like a TV weather map, a forecasting
tool we don't put a lot of stock in. It's not the future,
it's just information we can use or not use."
But don't look for genetic testing to go away, he said,
despite concerns about genetic discrimination by insurance
companies or employers.
"These tests will come along because the people who
can pay for them will do so," he said.
David Lore is science reporter for The Dispatch.
Printed in the Columbus Dispatch,
15 October 2002
(c) Columbus Dispatch
