Research suggests that a protein produced by the gene can restore function to failing hearts, and reduce the risk of death and heart transplants

The first of 200 heart failure patients will be treated at the Golden Jubilee National Hospital, Glasgow, in a new trial to evaluate this therapy.

Doctors will randomly treat half the patients with a harmless virus carrying a corrective gene. The rest will receive an inactive placebo treatment.

This new study will assess whether the treatment is safe, reduces emergency hospital admissions, and improves quality and length of life.
Patients will have their condition monitored for at least 12 months, and the first results should be released in two to three years.

Professor Sian Harding, head of the British Heart Foundation Centre for Regenerative Medicine at Imperial College London, whose team developed the therapy, said:-    "It's been a painstaking, 20-year process to find the right gene and make a treatment that works, but we're thrilled to be working with cardiologists to set up human trials that could help people living with heart failure."
 

Source:   BBC   ;   BHF