I was recently one of the first recipients of gene therapy for my condition. I have Hemophilia A, which is a bleeding disorder that results in bleeding into joints, muscle and soft tissue due to lack of a naturally occurring clotting factor that my body can't produce due to a defective gene. I received my dose of 30 billion viral particles about 13 weeks ago as part of a phase II clinical trial at UCSF.
It is amazing to me that we can manufacture and program viral particles to target specific cells. In my case, my treatment is a non-nucleonic technique that didn't repair the actual chromosomal hereditary defect but inserted a working gene, additional and freely available genetic material into my liver cells. It's amazing that the body can just recognize this extra bit of code and just start producing the factor. The engineer in me is also impressed they can make so many copies of the engineered virus.
It appears to be working. My factor levels have steadily increased and I’m now no longer a severe or even moderate hemophiliac. I’m their first patient to have achieved these results for hemophilia A severe and it puts me well into the therapeutic range. It really feels like I have been given a new body, it’s indescribable. For the first time in my life, I’m pain free.
It’s a weird feeling. Pain, mostly from bleeds into my joints, has been my constant companion. I was never able to do sports as a kid and had to avoid many other activities that would put me at risk. I have mixed feelings about all of this. On one hand I’m extraordinarily grateful, and the other side I see what a huge disadvantage I’ve been at compared to others for all of my life. I thought this day would never come, I had resigned myself to my limitations but now they are gone in a matter of weeks through the miracle of a medical experiment.
My old medication, a replacement clotting factor that was synthetically produced in a lab, worked but not nearly as well as this. Not to mention the fact it cost over $100,000 per month and I had to give myself an IV every other day. It's truly been a life changing experience for me, and I hope that gene therapy becomes widely available to others.
Also, the thing that was a milestone in this case was that the Hemophilia A factor VIII gene has been notoriously difficult to create a genetic therapy for because of the complexity of the actual gene itself. On the scale of what the body produces, its one of the more complicated proteins. So it basically means many other genetic conditions will be able to be treated with and addressed with similar technology.
Such an exciting time to be alive, and yes there are amazing things happening right now despite all the bad news you may hear!