CAR T-cell therapy, a treatment for certain types of cancer, requires the removal of white blood cells via IV, genetic modification of those cells outside the body, culturing of the modified cells, chemotherapy to kill off most of the remaining unmodified cells in the body, and reinjection of the genetically engineered ones. The price is $500,000 to $1,000,000.
And it only modifies a single gene.
This makes it sound like CAR-T is gene editing, but it isn’t. Instead of editing a gene, it introduces a new one (a chimeric T-cell receptor). Although some companies are working on gene editing to enhance CAR-Ts.
I was under the impression that the new gene usually integrated into the cell’s genome. But that impression was from a conversation with GPT-4 so perhaps I’m mistaken. Or perhaps new gene insertions are not considered gene editing?
This makes it sound like CAR-T is gene editing, but it isn’t. Instead of editing a gene, it introduces a new one (a chimeric T-cell receptor). Although some companies are working on gene editing to enhance CAR-Ts.
I was under the impression that the new gene usually integrated into the cell’s genome. But that impression was from a conversation with GPT-4 so perhaps I’m mistaken. Or perhaps new gene insertions are not considered gene editing?
It does integrate into the genome. It’s gene therapy, but not gene editing (which means editing an existing gene).