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Review
. 2018 Nov 1;6(4):102.
doi: 10.3390/biomedicines6040102.

The Role of Gene Therapy in Premature Ovarian Insufficiency Management

Ihor Atabiekov  1 , Elie Hobeika  2 , Ujala Sheikh  3 , Abdeljabar El Andaloussi  4 , Ayman Al-Hendy  5
Affiliations
Review

The Role of Gene Therapy in Premature Ovarian Insufficiency Management

Ihor Atabiekov et al. Biomedicines. .

Abstract

Premature ovarian insufficiency (POI) is a highly prevalent disorder, characterized by the development of menopause before the age of 40. Most cases are idiopathic; however, in some women the cause of this condition (e.g.; anticancer treatment, genetic disorders, and enzymatic defects) could be identified. Although hormone-replacement therapy, the principal therapeutic approach for POI, helps alleviate the related symptoms, this does not effectively solve the issue of fertility. Assisted reproductive techniques also lack efficacy in these women. Thus, an effective approach to manage patients with POI is highly warranted. Several mechanisms associated with POI have been identified, including the lack of function of the follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) receptor, alterations in apoptosis control, mutations in Sal-like 4 genes, and thymulin or basonuclin-1 deficiency. The above mentioned may be good targets for gene therapy in order to correct defects leading to POI. The goal of this review is to summarize current experiences on POI studies that employed gene therapy, and to discuss possible future directions in this field.

Keywords: Ad; POI; SAL-like 4 genes; SALL4; SC; basonuclin-1; follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH); gene therapy; menopause; premature ovarian insufficiency; replication-incompetent adenoviral vector; stem cells.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Gene therapy in combination with the use of stem cells (SC) may open up a new field in regenerative medicine. A possible way to modify human genes without using a viral vector is SC therapy. Different SC types may be obtained from various types of tissue of the human body. The target gene is replaced with the therapeutic one, and the modified SC is then injected back into the patient’s body (e.g., peripheral blood, target organ). These altered SC may produce a colony of new specific cells or influence the function of the surrounding tissue.
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