Cure heart failure with just one injection

Scientists have successfully recovered cardiac function in pigs with heart failure through genetic modification. This therapy will be clinically tested on humans next year.

New opportunity for people with heart disease

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 6 million adults in the United States have heart failure. Among them, at least half of the patients died within 5 years of diagnosis. Therefore, any progressive treatments discovered in this area are invaluable results, because they can help save millions of lives.

This year, the UK launched a program to help people with heart failure with hearts donated by others. In October, scientists succeeded in restoring the function of sick pig hearts. These findings are especially important for the future of heart disease therapies, because the hearts of pigs and people are actually very similar.

In 2018, the first clinical trials of human heart failure treatment will be conducted and are expected to last for several years. Previously, in 2015, the biotech company Celladon tried to create a treatment for heart disease but failed.

Since then, Dr. Roger J. Hajjar - co-founder of Celladon and a professor at Icahn Medical School in Mount Sinai, has developed a new form of treatment related to gene therapy. The conclusions from recent pig trials laid the groundwork for human trials that the Hajjar intends to do next year.

Treatment of heart failure by new methods.(Photo: Internet.)

The Hajjar researcher and his team treated 13 pigs with severe heart failure: six pigs received gene therapy, and the remaining seven were given only a fake salt solution. As a result, pigs treated with gene therapy reduced heart failure in the left ventricle by about 25%, in the left atrium by 20%; At the same time, 10% reduction in heart enlargement.

Because the pig heart is about the same size as the human heart, we can hope to see similar changes in human heart failure patients - once the test is conducted.

Improved gene therapy

New therapies developed by US doctors affect a gene that regulates phosphatase-1, a protein present in large numbers in heart failure patients. Too many of these proteins cause heart contractions. After identifying the molecular targets that exist in all patients with heart failure, doctors can cure them all, not just those with specific genetic mutations. The gene is inserted into an artificial virus, then passed into the femoral artery, which leads to the heart muscle to restore the missing protein in the damaged organ. The goal of scientists is to treat heart failure with just one injection.

Although the clinical trial in 2015 failed, the Hajjar researcher was still optimistic about the new gene therapy. He said that the method not only restores heart muscle, but also can boost heart contractions appropriately. For swine testing and the upcoming human clinical trial, the method will be adjusted so that genes can be more effective when injected into a large artery.

Mr. Walter Koch - Director of Translational Medicine Center of Temple University said: This new research shows a lot of potential. Although therapy promises to bring about positive results, but how much does it cost patients to use? According to MIT Technology Review, the prices of four gene therapies currently licensed (two in Europe and two in the US) are high, so there is reason to believe that new therapies also will be very expensive.