PATHOLOGY MCQ
GENETICS AND DISEASE
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Question
[CLICK ON ANY CHOICE TO KNOW THE RIGHT ANSWER]
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In 1990, scientists at the National Institutes of Health used gene therapy to try to treat a 4-year-old girl suffering from severe combined immunodeficiency disease (SCID). This genetic disease made her extremely susceptible to infections. The scientists used a virus to inject normal genes into the girl’s immune system cells. The experiment was moderately successful, and the girl’s health improved but only for short periods of time.If this form of gene therapy could be fine-tuned, how would it impact society?
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People would need to be genetically tested before having children together.
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Most Americans would no longer suffer from heart disease.
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The number of infections from genetically-engineered viruses would increase.
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Many genetic diseases would be curable.
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Explanation:
Detailed explanation-1: -French Anderson, MD, was “dubbed ‘the father of gene therapy’ after a team he led in 1990 cured a hereditary disease of the immune system in a 4-year-old girl.” That’s not quite the way it happened.
Detailed explanation-2: -In gene therapy, doctors extract a child’s defective blood-forming cells, correct the defect, and put the corrected cells back into the child. The repaired cells provide the child with a working immune system. A third treatment, enzyme replacement therapy, can be used for children and adults with ADA-SCID.
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