Gene therapy - new hope in the treatment of heart failure

Heart failure is a chronic pathological condition characterized by the heart's inability to pump blood efficiently enough to meet the needs of the body, resulting in fatigue, shortness of breath, coughing and leg cramps. This condition usually occurs due to the progression of cardiovascular disease, such as: arrhythmia, narrow valve insufficiency, hypertension, ischemic heart disease and prolong especially after a myocardial infarction caused myocardial injury.

For cardiologists, the treatment of heart failure is still ideal to reconstruct the mass function of myocardial injury. Recently, in a new study, scientists have used gene therapy towards the body to repair this damage.
In this study, gene therapy has been used to improve symptoms in 17 patients with stage III heart failure (patients with advanced disease causing fatigue, shortness of breath, even with mild activities in subsistence day).

The researchers said they were "designed" the stem cells of the body to replace the myocardial cell injury. These findings, published February 21 in the journal Circulation Research. But that's just the preliminary results, and we also need more research done again.
"Research has created the basis of the original," said Dr. Marc Penn team leader - Professor of Medicine at the University of northeastern Ohio (USA), who is also director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute Akron said. Penn heart failure and other experts said they cautiously optimistic about the potential of therapy, at least for some patients.
Stem cells are primitive cells that can develop into many different types of tissues in the body. Adult stem cells in the bone marrow, they make the blood cells. It is also found in various organs in the body can also stem cells, including the heart.

Treatment of heart failure by means of repair or replacement of heart muscle cells damaged by using gene therapy is one of the effective natural. Scientists have conducted a sting in myocardial protein gene containing SDF-1 enhances pull the stem cells available in the body to the heart muscle damaged to repair. Initial results showed that approximately 90% of patients improve heart failure symptoms and the ability to walk. The therapy is also quite safe without side effects were noted. Two of the patients studied had died within a year, but the reason is not related to treatment. Among the 15 patients alive one year later, there were signs of improvement of symptoms and the ability to walk.

A major limitation of the study was not placebo-controlled. That means not know whether some patients studied had felt "placebo effect" or not (the phenomenon of active people feel better simply because they believe that they get a method effective treatment). Penn said his group is conducting a test the next phase in 90 patients, which will include a control group.
Researchers have long sought to use stem cells to treat heart failure, by infusion in cardiac stem cells from the bone marrow of patients. With this new method, although the initial effect is modest and need larger studies to assess, but experts agree this is a potential method, less expensive by reducing the time nurturing space and inject stem cells into patients outside.
Experts are hoping to find a method of treating heart failure helps restore damaged heart muscle. So now, the treatment of heart failure is mainly dependent on medication and lifestyle changes to reduce symptoms and reduce the burden on the heart.