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Asked by erionahasani to Lyn, Katy, Paul, PB, Ruth on 21 Jun 2013.
Question: is there a cure for crystic fibrosis?
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Peter Balfe answered on 21 Jun 2013:
No cure, but lots of ways to help CF patients lead near normal lives.
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Ee Lyn Lim answered on 22 Jun 2013:
No, unfortunately we don’t have a way to cure cystic fibrosis. The reason is that CF is a genetic disease, which means it’s not an infection from the outside, or parts of your body behaving wrongly – there is a mutation (a mistake) in the DNA of every single cell of a person with CF. And right now we have no way to change the DNA in our cells.
Like Peter said, we can’t cure it completely, but we can treat the symptoms. It’s like how someone with curly hair can’t be changed to have straight hair, but you can change how it looks and feels with straightening irons! I found a really nice website that tells you how CF is treated: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/cystic-fibrosis/Pages/Treatment.aspx
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Katy Brown answered on 25 Jun 2013:
Yep, it can be improved but not cured. There are lots of researchers working on gene therapy for cystic fibrosis – a way to replace the defective gene which causes the disease with a normal gene, but it is still in its early stages. It is also possible for parents who know they carry the cystic fibrosis gene (due to relatives or existing children with the disease) to use IVF to have children and pre-test all the embryos to find one without the disease gene, then implant this embryo into the mother. This is expensive though so it’s only worthwhile for couples with a high risk.
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Paul Waines answered on 25 Jun 2013:
No, not yet. It’s a genetic disease and we lack the technology to cure it, although it is possible to spot it at a very early stage i.e. before babies are born by testing their DNA. However, we know enough about it to be able to give most sufferers a good standard of life.
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