Virus to Help Heart Failure Patients
A virus can help heart failure patients.
Doctors are hoping an engineered virus will help patients with heart failure by healing the damage caused by heart attacks or hereditary diseases.
200 patients will participate in the second phase of a medical trial in the United Kingdom to see if the virus, which has been designed to carry a corrective gene to the heart, is an effective treatment method. The gene increases the levels of a specific protein needed to correct the heart’s defects.
Dr Alexander Lyon, a cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, where some patients will take part in the trial, said: "This is the first ever gene therapy trial for heart failure. Our goal is to fight back…by targeting and reversing some of the critical molecular changes arising in the heart when it fails.”
Heart failure reportedly affects over three quarters of a million people in the United Kingdom.
In the US, heart disease is the leading cause of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 715,000 Americans have a heart attack every year.
Prior studies have shown that the gene therapy can reduce the risk of death and other cardiac events due to heart failure by half.
Doctors are hoping an engineered virus will help patients with heart failure by healing the damage caused by heart attacks or hereditary diseases.
200 patients will participate in the second phase of a medical trial in the United Kingdom to see if the virus, which has been designed to carry a corrective gene to the heart, is an effective treatment method. The gene increases the levels of a specific protein needed to correct the heart’s defects.
Dr Alexander Lyon, a cardiologist at Royal Brompton Hospital, where some patients will take part in the trial, said: "This is the first ever gene therapy trial for heart failure. Our goal is to fight back…by targeting and reversing some of the critical molecular changes arising in the heart when it fails.”
Heart failure reportedly affects over three quarters of a million people in the United Kingdom.
In the US, heart disease is the leading cause of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 715,000 Americans have a heart attack every year.
Prior studies have shown that the gene therapy can reduce the risk of death and other cardiac events due to heart failure by half.
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