Investigators probe gene therapy death
WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 (UPI) -- Medical investigators say an
Illinois woman who died while in an experimental gene therapy
trial was infected with a fungus that spun out of control.
No formal cause of death has been determined for Jolee
Mohr, 36, who died July 24.
Doctors said she had been generally healthy until July 2,
when genetically engineered viruses were injected into her
right knee in an experimental treatment for her rheumatoid
arthritis, The Washington Post said Friday.
A doctor involved in the investigation said Mohr was
infected with histoplasmosis, a fungus common in the area in
which she lived. It had ravaged her organs, suggesting that
her immune system was seriously impaired.
At the time of her death, the Taylorville, Ill., woman was
taking conventional immune-suppressing drugs for her
arthritis. One of the drugs, Humira, is known to make patients
susceptible to histoplasmosis, the newspaper said.
"It's a major mystery," said Kyle Hogarth of the
University of Chicago Medical Center.
Targeted Genetics of Seattle said none of the more than 100
other volunteers who got the injections suffered anything more
than short-lived side effects.
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