Gene Therapy For Atherosclerosis

- The US Food and Drug Administration's Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee has approved a proposal by St Elizabeth's Medical Center and Tufts Medical School in Boston to use gene therapy to treat 12 patients with athero-sclerosis who have a clot in one of two major arteries that supply blood to the leg. The researchers propose to coat an angioplasty balloon with a polymer impregnated with genes coding for vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), which will be inflated near the blockage. The genes should be taken up by the cells of the artery wall and produce VEGF proteins for several weeks, which should help new blood vessels grow around the blockage. If the treatment is successful, say the researchers, the next logical step would be to use the method to open blocked arteries leading to the heart.