advanced gene therapy and ADN usage

[sleidia]

Hello

 

Here is something I'm very curious about :

 

From what I understand, and correct me if I'm wrong , gene therapy allows the introduction of a corrected gene into the DNA contained in a few cells, which then, will replicate in order to propagate the corrected gene, right?

 

So, my questions are :

 

1. what would happen if, at the age of 50, you introduce in your cells the DNA of your 30s?

 

2. how would you do if you wanted to safely conserve the DNA of your young days during decades? Would a simple hair be enough?

 

3. since ageing is probably due to deprecating DNA after a certain number of copies, and since we're bound to witness great advances in biology during the next decades, wouldn't be wise to conserve your young DNA for a possible use in the future?

 

Feel free to share your thoughts about it

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

The DNA isn't exactly propagated. All that happens is that the "children" of that cell contain that DNA - it is not spread around like a disease. So if you were to give someone their DNA from 20 years ago, it would only replace some of the cells in their body, not all.

 

In theory, a virus could be engineered to inject DNA into cells, so that could cover a lot more ground.

[sleidia]

Thanks

 

...

In theory, a virus could be engineered to inject DNA into cells, so that could cover a lot more ground.

 

Well, it's not only theorical.

It has been achieved already and people were treated for diseases ranging from skin cancer to others.

 

So, how should I start saving my DNA?

[Dak]

gene therapy sticks a gene/genes into an existing genome; what you're suggesting is completely replasing the genome, which is not possible in vivo at the moment afaik (at least, not in a multi-cellular organism).

 

to somewhat cancel the effects of ageing, i suppose you could do some genetic tinkering to the telomeres, but its unlikely that that'll somehow undo aging... lots of aging is likely to be agenetic.

[sleidia]

But a wise approach is always to think ahead, right?

In 20 years it's possible that the replacement of the whole DNA will be possible.

So, people who weren't wise enough to "backup" their DNA will probably be less lucky than the others.

 

So, who wants to answer question #2 ?