Could the Aids virus hold the key to curing hundreds of life-threatening diseases?
BBC Two’s Horizon looks at a trial that went tragically wrong in 1999 and investigates current research into the treatment. Dr Inder Verma of the Salk Institute in San Diego is attempting to use the HIV virus to kick-start gene therapy – a technique for treating illnesses that has been much hyped and has received many millions of dollars of funding, but has so far failed to deliver substantial benefits. In gene therapy, any disease with a genetic component can be cured simply by replacing defective genes with healthy ones. Since most diseases from cancer to cystic fibrosis are caused by defective genes, this means the technique could, in theory, cure a whole range of conditions that are currently beyond the reach of modern medicine. However the problem has always been how to get the healthy gene into a defective cell. Researchers in San Diego were shocked when they realised that their leading candidate was HIV Penny Palmer Scientists have tried a number of potential solutions from dire
