Can Genes Replace Drugs?

With heart disease becoming an increasing problem in the developed world, there may be a new ray of hope out there for sufferers. The current treatment for heart disease is to take a cocktail of drugs to sustain the failing organ. Now, scientists from the University of Michigan and the University of Minnesota have teamed up and developed a new concept of treating the heart with genes.

The scientists modified a virus to carry a gene that would produce a protein that expressed a fast molecular motor, enabling heart cells to contract normally. They treated diseased hearts of rabbits and humans, containing slow molecular motor, with this modified virus and the diseased heart cells were again able to express this fast molecular motor, showing that the heart is healing itself.

Current drug treatments only provide a temporary solution to the problem, by depleting current sources of calcium to activate the contractions, and create problems of its own. Gene therapy goes to the crux of problem and aims to heal the heart. Dr Herron, from the University of Michigan hopes that this will open a new door for ‘closed heart surgery’.

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http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091005102649.htm

http://www.fasebj.org/cgi/content/abstract/fj.09-140566v1