Gene Therapy: Penicillin

The field of medicine is constantly evolving, for the advancement of new technologies is starting to change how conditions are diagnosed and treated, affecting many families across the globe. Some technology can be seen as gateways to possibly curing diseases such as cancer or sickle cell which affects millions of Americans daily. Sickle Cell is a recessive disease where a mutated form of hemoglobin distorts erythrocytes into a crescent shape, thus preventing oxygen from entering these cells. My little brother has the SC form of the disease which means that his symptoms are less severe than the actual form. Although these symptoms are less severe, a fever or a simple pathogen can still become life threatening for him if he does not receive immediate medical attention.
To combat foreign agents that can harm his immune system, he has to take the antibiotic, Penicillin, twice a day to assist with his immune responses. One of the problems with taking Penicillin is its susceptibility to become antibiotic resistant against some pathogens. Because it can easily be resistant to bacteria, less doctors are turning to the medicine to treat disease. Potentially in the future, Penicillin will not be able to help with fighting antigens inside of patients with …show more content…
Gene therapy is a developing field of medicine where scientists are trying to manipulate genes in order to eliminate defective cells that can cause hereditary diseases such as Huntington’s disease and even sickle cell. If the hemoglobin gene can be altered from defection, preferably when a baby is born, then the child will not have the coding trait for sickle cell. In layman 's terms: Gene therapy can change mutations in DNA so that a person will not have the disease. If gene therapy becomes more prevalent in medicine, my family and I would allow my brother to go through it in order to get rid of his sickle cell