HOME >> BIOLOGY >> NEWS
Jefferson scientists use gene therapy to reverse heart failure in animals

(PHILADELPHIA) Heart researchers at the Center for Translational Medicine at Jefferson Medical College have used gene therapy to reverse heart failure in animals. In addition, they found that this gene therapy strategy had "unique and additive effects" to currently used, standard heart failure drugs called beta-blockers.

Reporting in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, researchers led by Walter J. Koch, Ph.D., director of the Center for Translational Medicine and the George Zallie and Family Laboratory for Cardiovascular Gene Therapy in the Department of Medicine at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, used a virus to carry the gene for a protein, S100A1, into the heart cells of rats with heart failure. The virus expressed the S100A1 gene only in heart cells and not in other organs, essentially making it a tailored therapy. After 18 weeks, those animals that received the gene therapy had significantly improved heart function compared to animals that did not receive the treatment.

Specifically, the Koch team, including Patrick Most, M.D., and Joseph Rabinowitz, Ph.D., also in Jefferson's Center for Translational Medicine, experimentally produced heart failure in the animals, which is characterized by a dramatic reduction in the heart's pumping ability. The scientists then delivered a modified adeno-associated virus (AAV) that contained the S100A1 gene to the heart's coronary arteries with the help of a novel heart-specific "gene promoter" that enabled the gene to be present only in heart cells.

The rats with heart failure were then followed for another two months, when their heart pumping function was monitored again. The animals that received the gene therapy had significantly better heart-pumping abilities compared to the pre-gene therapy level, and overall, the S100A1-treated rats had improved heart health. The researchers found this in both individual heart cells and in the whole
'"/>

Contact: Steve Benowitz
steven.benowitz@jefferson.edu
215-955-5291
Thomas Jefferson University
23-May-2007


Page: 1 2 3

Related biology news :

1. Jefferson scientists patent dramatically improves
2. Marker predicts pancreatic cancer outcome after surgery, Jefferson surgeon finds
3. Tiny genes may increase cancer susceptibility, Jefferson scientists find
4. Jefferson researchers discovery may change thinking on how viruses invade the brain
5. Jefferson scientists identify protein key to breast cancer spread, potential new drug target
6. Jefferson scientists find rabies-based vaccine could be effective against HIV
7. Jefferson scientists uncover gene mutation that cuts colon polyps, may suppress cancer
8. Targeting the adrenal gland could be key strategy against heart failure, Jefferson scientists show
9. Jefferson scientists find guardian genes choices crucial to stopping cancer process
10. Jefferson researchers uncover new way nature turns genes on and off
11. Jefferson researchers develop combined procedure for uterine preservation in treating fibroids

Post Your Comments:
*Name:
*Comment:
*Email:


(Date:9/14/2019)... ... September 12, 2019 , ... ... solutions for drugs, biologics, gene therapies, and consumer health products, today announced that ... biologics business. Dr. Schaffer has played an integral advisory role on the gene ...
(Date:9/8/2019)... Calif. (PRWEB) , ... September 06, 2019 , ... ... Board of Directors of Nanosens Innovations have each authorized the respective companies to ... a subsidiary of Cardea, with the Nanosens brand representing a series of products ...
(Date:8/27/2019)... ... ... Shoreline Biome , a microbiome research company that develops tools for characterizing ... and Karen Woodward as its VP of Business Development. , These two new ... expand the company’s sales worldwide. , Prior to joining Shoreline Biome, Bill McKenzie was ...
Breaking Biology News(10 mins):
(Date:9/17/2019)... ... September 17, 2019 , ... Tucker, a Labrador retriever, was just a puppy ... was limping and lame on his right hip and elbow. At one year of ... “the worst case the vet had seen.” He was prescribed pain medications, both oral ...
(Date:9/17/2019)... ... September 16, 2019 , ... MyBioGate Global ... Focus @ Biotech Week Boston, a forum organized by MyBioGate, Inc. and CUBIO ... , After a careful process of evaluation, twelve companies out of over 200 ...
(Date:9/9/2019)... ... September 09, 2019 , ... Visikol CEO Dr. Michael Johnson ... focused on how best to characterize 3D cell culture models. The inherent problem of ... too thick and opaque to image through and therefore traditional wide-field or even confocal ...
(Date:8/29/2019)... ... August 29, 2019 , ... ... affecting grapevines, a feat they hope will ultimately help protect the multibillion-dollar grape ... several Rochester Institute of Technology faculty and alumni sequenced the microbiome found within ...
Breaking Biology Technology:
Cached News: