What is the therapy of the germ line?
The therapy of the germ line is a form of treatment of the disease where genetic changes are made on the lines of germ or pre-embryonic stages on sperm or egg cells. This is, unlike the traditional somatic approach, where attempts to treat the disease are performed at genetic level in fully ripe organisms. Although the therapy of the germ line is more effective, it carries a number of controversial ethical and social concerns. In somatic gene therapy, non -functional genes are replaced or genetically increased in a patient to treat the target gene. This treatment has often proved to be ineffective or temporary. The basic advantage of the therapy of the germ line gene is that genetic change is transmitted to the embryo as a permanent and natural part of development. Such genetic changes are irreversible and can then be transferred by the subject of His or its descendants.
both forms of gene therapy generally use the same fora sermon or vector for inserting new genetic instructions into cells. Viruses that are otherwise harmless to the body are used as transport mechanisms. Part of their genetic structure is changed so that it carries the desired gene, and then they are inserted into the host, where they integrate their DNA into the cell structure of the DNA host cells. They are reproduced together with the host cells, spreading a changed gene throughout the body.
Where somatic treatment fails, it is in how this new genetic material is accepted by the body. Often there are immune responses, side effects from the presence of virus, and cell damage that can lead to mutation and cancer. Also, many diseases are often the result of several genetic weaknesses that cannot be treated by repairing only one gene. The germist gene therapy bypasses most of these problems and creates its own.
successful treatment with gene therapy of germ lines will probably not have any immune response at all. It is also easier to make sperm changesor egg cells than to try to treat a complex and established genetic disorder in an adult. On the other hand, the therapy of the germ line gene, if defective, may be much more harmful to the embryo than the adult, resulting in deformity or death.
Ethical problems also arise if it is possible to use the therapy for the germ line to change the basic characteristics of the individual. Such changes may occur in sex, height, intelligence, skin colors, etc. On a larger scale, this could become an eugenic program that manipulates the entire population to discard unwanted features.