British scientists develop gene therapy to treat heart patients

2008-05-18 20:32:41 [ Big Normal Small ]    　Comment

 LONDON, May 18 (Xinhua) -- British researchers have developed a new gene therapy with the potential to treat heart patients with an injection instead of risky transplant surgery.

    According to reports from The Sunday Telegraph, the new therapy, the first of its kind in Britain, inserts a gene carried by a modified virus into the patient's heart muscle cells.

    The therapy could help the cardiac muscles around the damaged tissue caused by a cardiac arrest to beat harder and faster and allow the heart to recover most of its original functions, said researchers from Harefield Hospital in Middlesex and Imperial College London.

    The gene, known as SERCA2a, could increase heartbeats produced by the undamaged heart muscle and compensating for the damaged tissue because it causes heart muscle cells to contract more strongly and relax faster, the researchers noted.

    The researchers have been given approval to use the genetically modified virus to treat 16 patients waiting for heart transplants, according to the daily.

    "We are aiming to make most of the heart muscle that a patient has left after a heart attack," said Professor Sian Harding, a cardiac pharmacologist at Imperial College London leading the trial. She expressed hope to begin a small safety trial on the therapy in January next year.

    A heart attack is caused when part of the heart muscle is starved of oxygen and dies. It often leaves patients at greater risk of future heart failure as their heart struggles to pump blood around the body after it has been damaged.

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