Another Day, Another Gene, Another Cure?

In a just-released study in Nature Neuroscience, researchers report that they have found a genetic defect in children that could lead to schizophrenia. One-third of 24 children who had what's called a "deletion" (missing DNA, in essence) on Chromosome 22 will develop schizophrenia. Like other science journals, Nature Neuroscience is a pinhead about releasing studies free to the public, even though we underwrite the research. Here's a link to a news account.

Some people will assume this is the harbinger to a cure. It's not. It's a scientific finding, based on a limited patient population, that will need to be replicated by other scientists before schizophrenics can even begin to dream of gene therapy and the like. Then researchers will have to figure out how to replace this missing code in children and adults with the mutation--and, then, they have to pull off the neat trick of getting it into the brain cells. That's a 10 to 15 year job, assuming this study proves out. Remember that the gene that causes cystic fibrosis was discovered in 1988. Researchers, to date, have been unable to find a way to deliver a corrected copy of that gene to cells in the lung.

I'm not trying to beat down anyone's hope, here. I'm just trying to be honest about how long a process science can be. In the meantime, we've got what we've got--and we want something else.