Cardiovascular diseases may be treatable with gene transfer

Vascular gene transfer may offer new treatments for cardiovascular diseases. A group of researchers, led by Professor John Martin of University College London, with funding from the European Union, has identified and is developing a gene that could prevent atherosclerosis, ischaemia and other vascular conditions. The group has been working for about six years on ways to treat vascular conditions, which are said to cause about 55 percent of deaths in the European Union.

Genetic therapy can be used either to correct a genetic defect or to express gene products that are useful therapeutically. This latter method may offer a new option for the treatment of cardiovascular disease, by causing over expression of therapeutically important factors such as proteins. The researchers are now perfecting ways of delivering the gene.

Promising therapeutic effects have been seen when testing the theory in animals with restenosis or vein-thickening. By transferring the genes coding for vascular endothelial growth factor and also fibroblast growth factor, blood flow and arterial development in the affected animals has been improved.

Gene transfer is achieved by the use of a carrier molecule, usually a virus. These enter the cells via specific receptors, where the new genetic information is integrated into the host genome. Human vascular gene therapy is a new area in which only very few preliminary results from human trials are as yet available. These results need to be confirmed in larger controlled trials. What is hoped for in the future is that particular vascular conditions will be identifiably linked to a particular gene or 'gene-cocktail' that needs to be delivered into the site, either with the aid of current non-invasive diagnostic techniques or with the development of the Human Genome Project.