Naked Science Forum

Life Sciences => Cells, Microbes & Viruses => Topic started by: DRL on 06/10/2009 03:11:40

Title: Can mass-cell genetic modification mutate a creature?
Post by: DRL on 06/10/2009 03:11:40

Hi.
I would like to know something which has for a long time been one of
my favourite questions.
Can mass-cell genetic modification mutate a creature?
I mean, what if you, say, use a "transporter" (sorry but no idea how to say it in English, but in Spanish it is "vector") that brings into a cell an entire new DNA. For example, you use nanobots or similar to transmit this DNA to most cells, replacing every original DNA with this new DNA. You also do this for skin cells, antibodies, etc... What could be the effects?, will this cause any damage?, and finally, how much will the creature's body mutate (if any mutations occur)?

Thanks for your time.

Title: Can mass-cell genetic modification mutate a creature?
Post by: Nizzle on 06/10/2009 15:43:58

Depending on the kind of mutation, the organism will (most likely) die.
Furthermore, if you want the effect of the mutations to last, you'll have to infect adult stem cells, or the mutated cells will be replaced by non-mutated cells.

And finally: in english, you can use vector as well.

Title: Can mass-cell genetic modification mutate a creature?
Post by: DRL on 07/10/2009 02:54:29

Well, thank you for your answer.
And what if you did exactly what you mentioned: "infect adult stem cells"?
What could be the effects of this?

Title: Can mass-cell genetic modification mutate a creature?
Post by: Nizzle on 13/10/2009 09:39:07

Again, depending on the kind of mutation, the organism will most likely die.

In the future however, infecting adult stem cells will become a major form of therapeutic gene manipulation to cure genetic diseases like for example stephen hawking's ALS disorder.

In practice, such manipulations are not yet given to patients because of the numerous lethal side effects of such gene therapy (like leukemia for example)