New gene therapy aims to treat heart failure

Two new clinical trials are set to begin in the UK in order to investigate how gene therapy can be used to treat heart failure.

Researchers at Imperial College London have started the work, which aims to increase the levels of SERCA2a protein heart muscle cells by using a harmless virus to insert additional genes into cells.

The two clinical trials follow over 20 years of research funded by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) at Imperial College and the Royal Brompton Hospital, which identified SERCA2a as a key factor impacting how heart muscle cells can contract in people with heart failure.

Cardiologists and scientists are leading the trials, which are being carried out in partnership with doctors at a number of UK hospitals, including Harefield in London, Papworth in Cambridge and the Golden Jubilee National Hospital in Scotland.

Dr Alexander Lyon, BHF Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London and Consultant Cardiologist at the Royal Brompton Hospital, said: “Heart failure affects more than three quarters of a million people across the UK.

“Once heart failure starts, it progresses into a vicious cycle where the pumping becomes weaker and weaker, as each heart cell simply cannot respond to the increased demand.”

Mr Lyon went on to say that the researchers are working to target and reverse the molecular changes that take place in the heart when failure occurs.

Doctors are aiming to study the gene therapy in two separate clinical trials, CUPID2 and SERCA-LVAD.

CUPID2 will analyse whether cardiac gene therapy to increase SERCA2a is safe and if it can improve both quality and length of life, while reducing emergency hospital admissions for heart failure patients.

On the other hand, SERCA-LVAD is set to begin recruitment in the summer of 2013 and is co-funded by the BHF. It will assess SERCA2a gene therapy in 24 UK heart failure patients who are already fitted with mechanical heart pumps.

Posted by Ben Evans