A young 13 year-old British boy has just learnt that after an IVF error the person he considers to be his father is not in fact his biological father.

The hospital made a mistake at the moment of insemination by using the sperm of another donor. It was after carrying out DNA tests that this error was revealed.

At the time that the error was made in 1988 the Human fertilization and Embryology Authority (HFEA), which gives the authorizations to all the English clinics practicing IVF, was not yet in existence.

Last year, after the birth of black twins carried by a white woman the HFEA set up procedures guaranteeing that each IVF would be subject to a double check.

The Sun 22/08/02

Parkinson’s disease
American researchers have for the first time attempted a gene therapy trial on a 55 year-old patient suffering from Parkinson’s disease. They injected into the brain of the volunteer millions of copies of a gene intended to stimulate the production of a chemical mediator responsible for controlling brain activity.
This pathology is linked to the reduction of this chemical mediator which causes hyperactivity in the brain. The patients then experience trembling of the hands, rigidity in their limbs and balance or coordination disorders.
On the other hand the Food and Drug Administration gave its agreement for 12 new experiments. However certain scientists are protesting against such experiments. They point to previous failures in gene therapy. In addition they point to the fact that treatments exist for controlling patients’ trembling. Finally, they denounce the fact that no preliminary test has been carried out on monkeys.

Le Nouvel Observateur 19/08/03 - Le Monde 21/08/03 - Le Figaro 22/08/03

Epilepsies
An American research team from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine has published in its scientific review Nature its experiments, which have made it possible to make rats less sensitive to focal epileptic fits. According to the principle of a gene therapy the team used particular carrier, in this case the AAV (adeno-associated virus), to set free the neurons of the galanine gene which is known to modulate the fits but is ineffective if it remains inside the neurons. For more details read online the summary of these experiments published in Nature of August 2003

Orphanews 25/08/03

Mucoviscidosis
The scientific review Human Gene Therapy has published in its July edition the results of the research of an American team which has succeeded its first phase I gene therapy trial in 25 patients suffering from mucoviscidosos. The researchers used the carrier rAAV2 (recombinant adeno-associated virus serotype 2) carrier of the corrector gene. No major side effect was observed. The efficacy of the treatment is to be evaluated during the phase II clinical trial.
Human Gene therapy ; 14(11) ; 1079-1088, 20/07/03
Orphanews 25/08/03

Le Nouvel Observateur 19/08/03 - Le Monde 21/08/03 - Le Figaro 22/08/03 - Orphanews 25/08/03

Catherine Verfaillie of the University of Minnesota revealed in 2002 the tremendous potentiality of adult stem cells. Recently she has just discovered that adult stem cells removed from bone marrow can differentiate themselves into cells of the midbrain. This discovery, which has been published in the journal “Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences”, could make it possible to treat patients suffering from Parkinson’s Disease and other maladies of the nervous system.

For C. Verfaillie adult stem cells have the same capacities for differentiation as embryonic stem cells.

25/08/03

A new publication of the review Annals of Neurology demonstrates that cells taken from aborted fetuses and transplanted into the brains of patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease bring about no significant improvement and even provoke undesirable side effects due to uncontrolled growth of the neurons.

This study was carried out on 34 patients by the team of Warren Olanow, the Professor of neurology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York.

Already in March 2001 the scientific review New England Journal of Medicine published similar results revealing alarming side effects for transplants of fetal cells in the case of Parkinson’s disease. This publication had brought a halt to fetal cell transplants in the USA, and the technique was also stopped in France.

Read the summary of the study (in English).

Sciencesetavenir.com (Cécile Dumas) 28/08/03 -