Gene therapy in dermatology

Genes are DNA functional units. They are composed of functional units (exons) and supposed non-functional units (introns). Cells have the capacity to regulate the turn on and off genes at the right time by definite regulatory elements.A mutation is an alteration or change in the genetic material. Mutations can cause gross structural chromosomal changes and/or can affect single or mutiple bases in DNA sequences.Gene therapy is the treatment or prevention of human disease by genetic manipulation. Somatic gene therapy restricts modification to somatic cells and used for treatment of genetic and non genetic diseases, while germ line gene therapy results in passage of modified gene to subsequent generation.Gene therapy can utilize two major delivery approaches, in vivo and ex vivo delivery. In vivo delivery involves direct introduction of genetic material into the target organ of the recipient, while ex vivo delivery involves removal of a sample from target organ followed by gene delivery in an environment outside the body e.g. in tissue culture dish, then returning of the genetically engineered sample back to the recipient.Both in vivo and ex vivo therapy require efficient methods to introduce the gene into cells as well as a need for a suitable level of expression of introduced gene. Numerous ways have been developed to achieve the transfer of genes to mammalian cells. All of the methods have advantages and disadvantages.