title: Cardiovascular gene therapy: angiogenesis and beyond.
abstract: Recent advances in understanding the mechanisms of disease have produced many new targets for gene therapy. However, it has been difficult to convert these new insights into clinically useful applications. In the field of cardiovascular medicine, most clinical studies of gene therapy have focused on angiogenesis as a treatment for ischemia. Initial enthusiasm was supported by small, uncontrolled, phase 1 trials. However, several large efficacy studies have recently been published that have not shown clinically significant improvement, and a few well-publicized complications of gene therapy have cast a pall over the entire field. In this review, we will summarize specific technical aspects of cardiovascular gene therapy, examine the recent series of clinical studies, and explore the direction of future work for the principal cardiovascular diseases.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Raffi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bekeredjian
authors.forename: Ralph V
authors.initials: RV
authors.lastname: Shohet
mesh_terms: D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases / Q000628:therapy*; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors / Q000235:genetics; D015316:Genetic Therapy; D005822:Genetic Vectors; D006801:Humans; D018919:Neovascularization, Physiologic; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D005346:Fibroblast Growth Factors