European Journal of Endocrinology (2000) 143 447±466 ISSN 0804-4643 INVITED REVIEW New perspectives for gene therapy in endocrinology Luisa Barzon, Roberta Bonaguro1, Giorgio PaluÁ 1 and Marco Boscaro Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences and 1Department of Histology, Microbiology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Padova, Padova, Italy (Correspondence should be addressed to M Boscaro, Department of Medical and Surgical Sciences, University of Padova, Via Ospedale, 105, 35128 Padova, Italy; Email:
[email protected], or to G PaluÁ, Department of Histology, Microbiology and Medical Biotechnologies, University of Padova, Via A Gabelli, 63, 35121 Padova, Italy; Email:
[email protected]) Abstract Gene therapy for endocrine diseases represents an exciting new type of molecular intervention that may be a curative one. Endocrine disorders that might be treated by gene therapy include monogenic diseases, such as GH de®ciency and hypothalamic diabetes insipidus, and multifactorial diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, obesity and cancer. Premises seem promising for endocrine tumours, but many combined approaches of cell and gene therapy are foreseeable also for other endocrine disorders. This review outlines the principles of gene therapy, describes the endocrine disorders that might take advantage of gene transfer approaches, as well as the gene therapy interventions that have already been attempted, their major limitations and the problems that remain to be solved. European Journal of Endocrinology 143 447±466 Introduction in 1989 (data from Journal of Gene Medicine, www. wiley.co.uk/genmed, updated to 1 September 1999) (1). In the last three decades scienti®c progress in biomedi- Even though the disorders targeted by gene therapy cal research has revealed the molecular mechanisms approaches span the entire spectrum of human and genetic bases of many human diseases.