[Prospects of gene therapy in treatment of coronary heart disease].
Gene therapy describes the transfer of genetic material into a cell for therapeutic purposes. This opens new therapeutic perspectives for cardiovascular medicine. It includes the inhibition of restenosis following angioplasty, e.g., by transfer of suicide genes such as CMV-thymidine kinase or by inhibition of the cell cycle of cells within the vessel wall. On the other hand, there is promising data concerning the induction of therapeutic angiogenesis using the transfer of angiogenic genes such as the one for vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF. During the past three years significant progress was made by a number of preclinical studies. On the other hand, the therapeutic success of gene therapy in humans is still missing, and this is true for all different strategies tested so far. Important and basic issues of gene transfer and the resulting cellular response need to be solved before a therapeutic use might become a routine procedure. In the meanwhile, an important focus of the experimental work lies in the identification and characterization of molecular targets for therapeutic interventions, another in the improvement of gene transfer systems. Such work will provide new information about the biology of cellular and viral structures including their functional interrelation; in addition a better insight into the pathogenesis of the various disease processes should be obtained.
Waltenberger
J
J
Abteilung Innere Medizin II Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik Universität Ulm.
D000818:Animals; D003327:Coronary Disease / Q000235:genetics / Q000628:therapy*; D005544:Forecasting; D018014:Gene Transfer Techniques; D015316:Genetic Therapy / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans
Perspektiven der Gentherapie bei der Behandlung der koronaren Herzkrankheit.