Another method of gene therapy of infarction

Gene therapy helps the heart to recover after a heart attack

Kirill Stasevich, CompulentaAfter a heart attack, processes begin in the heart muscle that can lead to almost more problems than the attack itself.

The damage caused by a heart attack causes scarring when the damaged area is filled with connective tissue elements. This reduces the elasticity of the heart muscle, which naturally affects its work: it pumps blood worse.

The most radical way to deal with a heart scar is heart transplantation, which for obvious reasons is not always possible. Researchers from Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York (USA) offer their alternative. In an article published in the journal Science Translational Medicine (Shapiro et al., Cyclin A2 Induces Cardiac Regeneration After Myocardial Infarction Through Cytokinesis of Adult Cardiomyocytes), Hina W. Chaudhry and her colleagues write that scarring can be stopped if the Cyclin A2 gene, or CCNA2, is awakened in the heart.

This gene, which is responsible for regulating the cell cycle, is usually in a dormant state. If it is injected into mature heart muscle cells, they begin to divide. That is, with its help, you can awaken the very regenerative properties of the heart muscle, which doctors have been dreaming about for a long time.

The CCNA2 gene was tested both on heart muscle samples and on animals: eighteen pigs who had a heart attack followed by scarring were injected with CCNA2, which was also equipped with a special regulator to increase its activity. As a result, the number of actual heart cells increased, and the work of the heart improved, since the muscle healed damage not with a connective tissue surrogate unsuitable for contractions, but with normal muscle cells.

It remains only to test this technology in humans, and if expectations are met, patients who have survived a heart attack will have a chance to restore heart function – if not to the original state, then close to it. However, one should not expect that this method will quickly reach hospitals: the concerns associated with any form of gene therapy are still great, so the safety of the gene therapy technique – even if it promises to cure the heart – will be checked for a very long time.

Prepared based on the materials of Scientific American: Gene Therapy Shows Promise for Treating Heart Attack Victims.

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