via thriveonline and while somewhat dated (7 jan 98), i think it provides a very real perspective.
Gene Therapy For Heart Attack
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- An experimental gene
therapy aimed at restoring blood flow to
oxygen-starved heart muscle has been used in a
60-year-old man, the first time that the therapy has
been used in a US patient, according to researchers
from the New York Hospital-Cornell University
Medical Center in New York.
Dr. Ronald G. Crystal announced Monday that he
and his colleagues at Cornell University Medical
College performed a triple bypass in the patient last
month. In addition, in an area of the heart too
diseased to be treated with a bypass, the investigators
injected adenovirus -- a relatively harmless respiratory
virus -- that had been engineered to carry the gene for
vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), a protein
that stimulates new blood vessel growth.
The VEGF gene-carrying virus was injected in a
series of 10 separate shots into the diseased heart
tissue, in an effort to generate new vessels to carry
blood to areas of the heart affected by reduced blood
supply.
"Gene therapy for cardiac angiogenesis is analogous
to 'blood vessels on demand,'" said Crystal in a
statement issued by New York Hospital-Cornell
Medical Center. "By inserting this new gene into the
heart, we are 'telling' the heart to detour around the
obstructed arteries."
"This is what genetic medicine is all about: taking
information derived from knowledge of the human
genome and using it to treat patients," added Crystal.
The case is the first step in determining if the therapy is
safe and effective in humans. VEGF gene therapy is
being tested in other areas of the world, but this is the
first test in the US of the safety and efficacy of this
approach in the heart.
Two months ago, at Tufts University, Dr. Jeffrey Isner
announced trials of VEGF gene therapy in the
treatment of arterial disease of the legs. Isner is
reported in Tuesday's edition of USA Today as saying
that about two thirds of the 21 patients under
treatment show clinical improvement.
Crystal has used gene therapy in the past to treat
patients with cystic fibrosis. Those efforts met with
limited success because of the difficulty with
maintaining adequate levels of the gene to confer
benefit. Cold viruses can be rapidly destroyed by the
immune system, making it difficult to maintain enough
of a therapeutic protein to improve the patient's health.
According to a PR Newswire report, the gene
therapy strategy is being developed under a
partnership between GenVec, Inc. of Rockville,
Maryland, of which Crystal is a co-founder, and the
Parke-Davis Research Division of Warner-Lambert
Company.
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