Researchers at UCLA have developed an effective treatment for adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency
Bubble baby disease, also known as adenosine deaminase-deficient severe combined immunodeficiency (ADA-SCID) is a devastating disease which affects the immune system and blocks the ability to fight infection. Individuals with ADA-SCID are therefore left highly vulnerable to infection and are therefore isolated in sterile environment – which led to the name ‘bubble baby’. While there are some available treatments, such as bone marrow transplantation and an expensive injection of the adenosine deaminase enzyme they are deficient in, these are either dangerous, reliant on donors or do not completely correct the deficiency.David Vetter was was born with SCID and lived in a sterile bubble. He died in 1984 at 12 due to complications from a bone marrow transplant. Credit: Baylor College of Medicine Archives
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