- LONDON (Reuters) - Scientists have isolated a gene which they believe
acts as an on/off switch for the body's immune system, promising new ways
of treating conditions ranging from cancer to Crohn's Disease, the British
company behind the breakthrough said on Tuesday. Researchers at the U.S.
arm of Chiroscience Group Plc are also close to locating a second gene
which could reverse bone wasting caused by osteoporosis, a condition which
affects millions of people over 60 and leads to more than one million fractures
in the U.S. every year. Research and Development Director Robert Jackson
said uncovering the gene which regulates the body's immune response could
one day lead to development of a whole new range of drugs. ``Sometimes
you want to turn it off and sometimes you want to turn it on,'' Jackson
told Reuters. Turning the immune sytem on or up could help in conditions
like AIDS and cancer, where the body's efforts to fight off tumours are
currently too weak. ``If we could strengthen that, we could develop drugs
to help the body react to tumours,'' Jackson said. But switching it off
or down might be useful in a range of diseases caused by an overly fierce
immune response -- such as rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes, psoriasis, Crohn's
Disease, ulcerative colitis and allergy. Gene-based research at the former
Darwin Molecular business in Seattle, Washington, which Chiroscience bought
in 1996, is also close to locating a mutant gene which may offer a way
of reversing the effects of osteoporosis for the first time. Scientists
are studying around 100 people and their families in South Africa with
extremely strong bones caused by a mutant gene which causes bone density
to increase as people age -- the exact opposite of osteoporosis. ``We are
close to identifying a unique bone structure gene for osteoporosis,'' Chief
Executive Officer John Padfield told Reuters. ``All other treatments try
to stop bone loss getting worse. What our gene appears to do is increase
bone density very substantially -- if this turns out to be true when we
test a drug, that would be a revolutionary treatment for osteoporosis.''
The company announced the discoveries as part of a day-long update on its
research and development activities. Shares in Chiroscience were up seven
percent or 17 1/2 pence in early afternoon trading in London. Chiroscience
said it will also work with the small British genome company Gemini Research,
which has built up a database of genetic information based on identical
twins. The two companies are to look for mutant genes linked to obesity.
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