Blistering skin disease: gene therapy gel heals decades-old wounds

The first topical gene therapy which awaits now the FDA approval showed encouraging results in clinical trials, being able to heal decades-old wounds in patients with blistering skin disease. The study was published on December 15, 2022 in the influential New England Journal of Medicine by professors and doctors from Stanford School of Medicine, CA, Children's Hospital of Orange County, CA and other institutions. The gene therapy uses a modified herpes simplex virus to deliver a gene that replaces the missing protein, collagen VII, thus stabilizing the skin. 

As mentioned by one of the main authors of the study, prof. Peter Marinkovich, director of the Stanford Medicine's Blistering Disease Clinic "this was a life-changing event" for the clinical trial participants.

Gene therapy gel heals decades-old wounds in trial for blistering skin disease/ Stanford Medicine News Center / December 15, 2022 - By Krista Conger