The first clinical gene therapy was given to treat:

Adenosine deaminase deficiency

The correct answer is Option (3) → Adenosine deaminase deficiency

Gene therapy is a collection of methods that allows correction of a gene defect that has been diagnosed in a child/embryo. Here genes are inserted into a person’s cells and tissues to treat a disease. Correction of a genetic defect involves delivery of a normal gene into the individual or embryo to take over the function of and compensate for the non-functional gene. The first clinical gene therapy was given in 1990 to a 4-year old girl with adenosine deaminase (ADA) deficiency.This enzyme is crucial for the immune system to function. The disorder is caused due to the deletion of the gene for adenosine deaminase.

Thalassemia : This is also an autosome-linked recessive blood disease transmitted from parents to the offspring when both the partners are unaffected carrier for the gene (or heterozygous).The defect could be due to either mutation or deletion which ultimately results in reduced rate of synthesis of one of the globin chains (α and β chains) that make up haemoglobin. This causes the formation of abnormal haemoglobin molecules resulting into anaemia which is characteristic of the disease.

Haemophilia : This sex linked recessive disease, which shows its transmission from unaffected carrier female to some of the male progeny has been widely studied. In this disease, a single protein that is a part of the cascade of proteins involved in the clotting of blood is affected. Due to this, in an affected individual a simple cut will result in non-stop bleeding.

Turner’s Syndrome : Such a disorder is caused due to the absence of one of the X chromosomes, i.e., 45 with XO, Such females are sterile as ovaries are rudimentary besides other features including lack of other secondary sexual characters.