A Successful Trial of Gene Therapy to Spur Vascular Growth in Heart Disease

One approach to the structural damage that takes place in heart disease is to attempt to spur growth of new blood vessels, to deliver nutrients to heart tissue that is currently poorly supplied. Gene therapy is in principle well suited to this goal, as a range of genes are known to be involved in regulating the processes of blood vessel generation. So far attempts to create a viable treatment haven't gone so well, unfortunately, but here researchers report success in a recent trial. The results seem promising. At the high level, this approach doesn't address the underlying causes of the situation, the various degenerative processes that give rise to heart disease and structural failure of important tissues in the first place, but when effective it might be considerably better than doing nothing, at least in the near term of a few months or years of remaining life expectancy for these patients. Angina pectoris is the most common symptom of coronary artery disease (CAD). In spite of improved medical and revascularization therapies, 5-10% of patients undergoing coronary angiography have refractory angina (RA), i.e. they are severely symptomatic while on optimal medical therapy and prior revascularization and not amenable to further revascularization procedures. Some patients with CAD develop collateral arteries, which can rescue ischaemic myocardium in spite of significant occlusions in coronary arteries and alleviate ischaemic symptoms. Therapeutic vascular growth stim...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs