Abstract
More than 25 years have passed since the world’s first gene therapy trial for adenosine deaminase deficiency in the United States in 1990. Dramatic therapeutic effects were reported in the several clinical trials, on the other hand, therapeutic effects did not reach anticipated levels in many cases. Furthermore, severe side effects were found in a few clinical trials. Gene therapy suffered a period of winter-like hardship. However, 7 types of gene medicines, including a lipoprotein lipase-expressing adeno-associated virus vector (Glybera) in 2012, has been successively approved afterwards due to the continuous efforts by researchers. Now gene therapy is becoming a reality. In this review, I describe the current status and future prospects of virus-based gene medicines.
