Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, November 16, 1994 TAG: 9411160154
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DALLAS LENGTH: Medium
The approach - outlined Tuesday at a meeting of the American Heart Association - is still untested, but it is one of a dozen or more ways in development to cure heart trouble by regulating the body's genes.
Some of these strategies are moving rapidly from lab animals to people. Experts predict some of them will be tried on heart patients within a year or two.
``There has been tremendous progress in this approach in just two years. The roadblocks that stand in the way have been identified,'' said Dr. R. Sanders Williams of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.
More than 40 reports on gene therapy are being presented at this week's heart meeting.
One of the more creative strategies was outlined by Dr. Laurence H. Kedes of the University of Southern California. About six years ago, scientists discovered a gene called Myo D that can turn almost any cell in the body into a muscle cell.
Working with dogs and rats, Kedes transferred this gene into the scar tissue that forms when a heart attack kills heart muscle. He found that the gene indeed transformed some of this tissue into muscle cells.
Whether these cells will actually work like normal heart muscle remains to be seen, however. The cells made so far are skeletal muscle, not heart muscle, and Kedes is unsure whether it will conduct electricity and beat like the muscle it is meant to replace.
Until these hurdles can be worked out, Kedes said, ``this is far removed from potential human application.''
The form of gene therapy that is probably closest to human use is intended to overcome one of the greatest shortcomings of cardiology - the failure of angioplasty.
More than 300,000 Americans undergo this procedure annually, which involves inflating a tiny balloon to squeeze open clogged heart arteries. However, the arteries close shut again within a few months in about 40 percent of patients.
by CNB