[barbarr]

The issue was not the gene therapy itself, but the delivery mechanism. They used a virus to administer the gene therapy, and this virus (like most bloodstream impurities) aggregates in the liver. At low doses this is fine, but at high doses, your body's immune response will be laser-focused on the liver, and you die from the side effects of this response.

[cyberax]

Lipid nanoparticles have exactly the same problem. They mostly concentrate in the liver.

[bgnn]

Wouldn't anything concentrate in the liver?

[wiz21c]

if it's so obvious that this is going to produce these side effects, then why on earth did they gamble ?

(because, it definitely look like gambling, like "investors are behind us right now, so we have the money to do it, so let's do it before money runs out")

[tyre]

My brother in commenting they are doing trials. Trials are by nature bets. That’s how we move science forward.

They’re not trying to kill people. There is a hell of a lot more money in _not_ killing people.

[amelius]

Could hemodialysis prevent this?

[EA-3167]

Yes, dialysis is surprisingly good at filtering out viral particles, but... that's not desirable in this case. After all these viruses are carrying the therapeutic payload, if you filter them out then you might as well not introduce them in the first place.

[khazhoux]

I imagine if these deaths could have been prevented by this one-line HN comment, they would have thought of it.

Maybe a better phrasing of your question would be:

> Why is hemodialysis ineffective for this?