4.+Life+Expectancy+and+Treatment

What is the life expectancy of someone with cystic fibrosis?
Before modern medicine, nearly all children with cystic fibrosis died. Thankfully, now more than fifty percent of CF patients will live past thirty.

Can CF be cured? Is there treatment?
Unfortunately, there is no cure for cystic fibrosis. However, there are a plethora of treatments available to help patients live long, happy lives. Antihistamines and decongestants are often prescribed to CF patients. Cough suppressants are to be avoided, however. Coughing can loosen the thick mucus that plagues CF-suffers. Antibiotics treat the pneumonia associated with cystic fibrosis, while ibuprofen slows the pulmonary decline of patients. Physical therapy and surgery are sometimes used to treat CF. Also, increasingly gene therapy is used to treat cystic fibrosis.

What is gene therapy? What does it involve for cystic fibrosis patients?
Gene therapy involves the placing of a copy of the normal CF gene into a virus that is altered not to cause disease. This virus is inserted into sufferer's lungs. Scientists have found that when the normal gene reaches the DNA of the lungs' cells, it starts to produce the correct mucus-producing-protein. This leads to less thick, built-up mucus.

How is the virus used in gene therapy inserted into the lungs?
Often times an aerosol spray is used to get the genes to the lungs. Since viruses can cause problems for CF patients (e.g., inflamed lungs and swollen nostrils), the spray uses liposomes--a sphere formed when fat molecules are placed into a solution--to act as the gene-carrier, or vector. The liposomes are coated with healthy cystic fibrosis genes and then sprayed into the nostrils. However, in this method, some of these genes will never make it to the lung cells' nuclei. Research continues to attempt to improve upon this approach to treatment.