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Hope for gene therapy on cystic fibrosis

Thursday 18 March 1993 00:02 GMT
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Scientists have cured laboratory mice suffering from cystic fibrosis - the commonest genetic disorder of north Europeans - and believe it shows gene therapy on human cystic fibrosis patients will work.

Today's issue of the science journal Nature reports that researchers from Oxford and Cambridge universities inserted healthy copies of the gene into the lungs of the diseased mice using a substance that could be developed into an inhalation spray for human patients.

Cystic fibrosis affects about 1 in 2,500 children in the UK. Patients develop severe lung problems which often kill them by the age of 25 to 30.

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