Doctors at Great Street Ormond Hospital in London have successfully developed a type of gene editing that can target malignant organisms inside the body and eradicate them. Even though the treatment is in its elementary stages, it looks like the procedure has a star testimonial so far, saving the life of a 12-month-old baby diagnosed with drug-resistant leukemia—marking the first time this treatment has been used.

The infant, named Layla, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was three months old. Despite standard cancer treatments like chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant—therapies which tend to work on older patients—her condition did not improve.

It was then that the parents gave permission for doctors to use their experimental gene therapy, in which immune cells from a donor were genetically engineered to detect and fight off cancerous cells and then implant them in the body. To create the edited genes themselves, the scientists used "molecular scissors"—what is essentially a mingling of DNA sequences with designated cells that can morph or mutate genes.

While there are a number of human trials currently under way for gene editing-based treatments (as of now, most collected information regarding the technique has been garnered from trials using mice), this marks the first time a patient has been treated using the method with a positive end result. While the infant isn't out of the woods yet (she's still undergoing regular testing and routine observation, the end results regarding the effectiveness of the cure that saved her is highly awaited—and might change the ways we treat cancer as we know it.

Via: Engadget

Photo: Frankie Leon | Flickr