Discovery of a viral protein that slips in and out of living cells by a mysterious route has raised hopes of making gene therapy more effective. Christened viral protein 22, or VP22, the enigmatic protein is made by the virus that causes cold sores ( New Scientist , Vol 153, No 2069). Discovered by Gellian Elliot and his colleagues at the Marie Curie Research Institute at Surrey, UK, the protein has the ability to sneak into hundreds of neighbouring cells from a single cell that has the VP22 gene.
Gene therapy faces a major obstacle in that, pumping of beneficial genes or proteins into enough diseased cells to have an effect on the overall illness, is a difficult process. The procedure does not ensure their entry into enough cells to show a marked effect. The major bonus for gene therapists is that VP22 can be genetically manipulated to carry desired genes into hundreds of cells at one go.
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