Cardiovascular gene therapy

Abstract

I. Introduction Cardiovascular diseases remain one of the leading causes of death and disability in the Western world despite considerable preventive and therapeutic efforts. Therefore, gene therapy has become an altenativemethod of treatment for cardiovascular diseases during the past decade. Research has focused mainly on the treatment of restenosis and therapeutic angiogenesis, but as the knowledge of mechanisms associated with multifactorial disease, such as atherosclerosis, proceeds, the possibilities for the treatment of other cardiovascular diseases become more attractive. However, there are two main areas of research which need to progress before gene therapy can fulfill its expectations in the cardiovascular field: (1)Underlying pathological processes need to be better understood and (2) low efficiency and poor targeting of current gene transfer methods must be improved.