OBJECTIVE To determine the clinico-demographic features and laboratory parameters of children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID). STUDY DESIGN Case series. PLACE AND DURATION OF STUDY Department of Paediatrics and Child Health, the Aga Khan University, Karachi, from July 2006 to July 2011. METHODOLOGY Thirteen infants who were discharged with a diagnosis of SCID were inducted in...

The marketing approval of genetically engineered hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) as the first-line therapy for the treatment of severe combined immunodeficiency due to adenosine deaminase deficiency (ADA-SCID) is a tribute to the substantial progress that has been made regarding HSC engineering in the past decade. Reproducible manufacturing of high-quality, clinical-grade, genetically engineere...

The aims of the present study were to investigate the impact of rapamycin (RAPA) on the endometriosis (EMS) lesions in severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) mice, and to examine the possible mechanism involved in a novel therapy in EMS. Following the successful establishment of an EMS-SCID mouse model, the mice were randomly assigned into the RAPA, control and saline treatment groups. Subsequ...

We report the isolation and propagation of human papillomavirus type 16, the main agent of cervical cancer, using human foreskin fragments implanted in severe combined immunodeficiency mice. The infection produced viral particles, and with each passage of the virus it caused lesions identical to intraepithelial neoplasia, the precursor to carcinoma.

Gene therapy has developed as a method of approach to the treatment of human diseases based on the transfer of genetic material to the cells of an individual. Normally, the aim of this transfer of genetic material is to re-establish a cellular function that has been abolished or is defective, to introduce a new function or to interfere with an existing function. Thus, the different gene therapy...

Amniocentesis was performed in two successive pregnancies of the mother of a child with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficient severe combined immunodeficiency. Assay of ADA in amniotic fluid fibroblasts showed the pregnancies to be normal and homozygous deficient, respectively. These findings were confirmed by the demonstration of a normal level of erythrocyte ADA in the cord blood of the healthy...

Live pentavalent human-bovine reassortant rotavirus vaccine is recommended in the United States for routine immunization of infants. We describe three infants, two with failure to thrive, who had dehydration and diarrhea within 1 month after their first or second rotavirus immunization and subsequently received a diagnosis of severe combined immunodeficiency. Rotavirus was detected, by means of...