SALIVARY glands can be transformed into drugs factories using gene therapy, say researchers in the US. They hope one day to replace injections for conditions like diabetes and haemophilia with an engineered gland that secretes therapeutic proteins into the blood and digestive tract.
Salivary glands can churn out a gobsmacking 50 grams of digestive enzymes each day, and while most of this output goes into saliva and is swallowed, some ends up in the bloodstream. Not only can salivary glands produce lots of protein, they are also encapsulated, so new genes put into the gland's duct cannot escape into the rest of the body. These two qualities make the lowly spit glands an ideal spot for gene therapy for diseases such as diabetes and haemophilia, which require treatment with daily doses of insulin and blood clotting factors respectively.
"It's a site that most people would not consider for systemic gene ...
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