Reliance Life Sciences receives a gene therapy technology: The Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur has granted Reliance Life Sciences Pvt Ltd a licence for a gene therapy method that has the potential to treat a variety of genetic eye ailments. Reliance Life Sciences will further develop IIT Kanpur’s gene treatment technology into a native product. The science of molecular medicine has recently seen the emergence of gene therapy employing viral vectors as a powerful tool.
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The patented technology was created by Jayandharan Giridhara Rao and Shubham Maurya from the Department of Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (BSBE), IIT Kanpur, to treat a genetic illness by altering an organism’s gene.
According to IIT Kanpur, this is the first time a gene therapy-related technology has been developed and licenced to a business in India. To meet unmet therapeutic requirements, Reliance Life Sciences is creating a number of different gene treatments. Also, the company is working on a variety of mRNA products and vaccines for both human and animal health.
What is gene therapy?
Human gene therapy aims to change a gene’s expression or the biological characteristics of living cells for therapeutic purposes. Gene therapy is a method of treating or curing disease that involves altering a person’s DNA. Gene treatments can function in a variety of ways:
- Replacing a disease-causing gene with a healthy copy of the gene
- Inactivating a disease-causing gene that is not functioning properly
- Introducing a new or modified gene into the body to help treat a disease
Products utilising gene therapy are being investigated for the treatment of diseases like cancer, genetic disorders, and infectious diseases.
There are a variety of types of gene therapy products, including:
- Plasmid DNA: Circular DNA molecules can be genetically modified to deliver therapeutic genes into human cells.
- Viral vectors: Some gene therapy items are made from viruses because they naturally possess the potential to introduce genetic material into cells. These modified viruses can be employed as vectors (vehicles) to transport therapeutic genes into human cells once viruses have been altered to reduce their capacity to spread infectious disease.
- Bacterial vectors can be modified to prevent the spread of infectious diseases, and then used as vehicles to deliver therapeutic genes into human tissues.
- Technology for human gene editing: The purpose of gene editing is to replace damaged or dangerous genes.
- Cells are extracted from the patient, genetically altered (typically using a viral vector), and then returned to the patient to create patient-derived cellular gene therapy products.