X-Message-Number: 2525 From: (Nick Szabo) Subject: CRYONICS: Gene therapy Date: Sun, 9 Jan 1994 04:43:13 -0800 (PST) On the sci.cryonics newsgroup the issue of gene therapy was brought up. This may potentially be a quite fruitful area for cryonics. The biotech community is now working on inserting genes into brain cells that will manufacture chemicals lost in Alzheimer's and Huntington's disease. Once those techniques are perfected, it may be only a small step (in biotech terms), $10-$100 million worth of R&D, to develop gene therapy that makes brain cells produce the cryoprotectant proteins found in freezing frogs or other cryoprotected creatures. This might be useful not only for cryonics, but also for organ transplant storage. Gene therapy might also provide anti-oxidants targeted specifically at the brain ischemia that occurs during the dying process, and at the reperfusion ischemia that occurs upon thawing of frozen organs. (The reperfusion ischemia, not freezing damage, is the main barrier to using cryopreservation for organ transplantation in many cases). The gene therapy is accomplished by designing viruses that can invade neural cells and insert DNA, but do not reproduce like normal viruses. These viruses are then injected into the brain's bloodstream and the DNA is inserted by the pseudo-viruses into the target cells. The cell's enzymes translate the DNA to MRNA, thence via the cell's ribosome to the desired new proteins. Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=2525