Remember the old 1980s Dow Scrubbing Bubbles? I sure do, and not just because I hated cleaning the bathroom and wanted to take their motto “we work harder so you don’t have to” seriously. The animated TV commercials selling this foamy soap were revolutionary for their time, the first use of computer graphics techniques that would ultimately lead to movies like Toy Story. If you have NO IDEA what I’m talking about, no problem, you can download these cute little critters as your screensaver and have them whizzing around in no time. Now, as reported by the BBC, scientists have made REAL scrubbing bubbles that promise a revolution in injecting new DNA and genes into people who need them. Safer than previously used viral injections, the new bubble-and-ultrasound technique so far has been tested on skeletal muscle in mice. It is hoped to eventually be used in treating muscular dystrophy in children.
Previous work at Imperial College, London had provided evidence that when ultrasound is applied to microbubbles (tiny gas bubbles measuring about three microns)in tissue, the microbubbles pop and can cause small perforations in the tissue cells which might allow the DNA to enter. This enabled researchers to develop a new “point and shoot” approach to gene therapy. To test the technique, researchers mixed microbubbles with modified DNA and injected them into the skeletal muscles of mice. They then subjected target cells to ultrasound to get them to take up the DNA. The technique proved 10 times more effective than more conventional but still experimental means of gene transfer such as viruses.
Researcher Dr Martin Blomley said: “What we’ve found here seems a promising lead into a new, safe and effective way of delivering genes into target cells. Gene therapy holds great promise in future for curing and ultimately preventing serious diseases but is still in its infancy as a clinical tool. This promising study suggests that there may be a less invasive and more efficient, safe and accurate technique for targeting tissue, than those currently in use.”