As soon as the oxygen declines, the sensor turns on the therapeutic gene, thereby protecting the heart. In addition to its potential for patients with heart disease, the strategy might also prove useful for any condition in which tissues are susceptible to loss of blood supply, including stroke, shock, trauma and sepsis, the researchers said.
When administered to rat hearts several weeks before ischemia, the designer gene combination protected the heart from much of the damage that may weaken the organ and lead to failure, according to the researchers. Their report will appear in a forthcoming issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and in the journal's online edition the week of Aug. 2, 2004.
The finding marks the first time a therapeutic gene complete with a built-in sensor that allows the gene to respond immediately to the condition it treats has been shown to work, said Victor J. Dzau, M.D., chancellor of health affairs at Duke University and an active physician-scientist at Duke. Such a therapy could offer a significant advance over available methods for treating heart patients, which are limited in their ability to provide treatment in the narrow window of time before irreversible heart damage occurs, he said. The work, led by Dzau at Brigham and Women's Hospital prior to his move to Duke in July, was supported by the National Institutes of Health and the Edna Mandel Foundation.
"While drugs that can protect heart mus
'"/>
Contact: Kendall Morgan
kendall.morgan@duke.edu
919-660-1306
Duke University Medical Center
2-Aug-2004