7/21/2011 PERMALINK
Gene therapy delivered once to blood vessel wall could protect you against plaque clogging your arteries. A one-dose method for delivering gene therapy into an arterial wall effectively protects the artery from developing atherosclerosis despite ongoing high blood cholesterol. The promising results came from research in rabbits. In atherosclerosis, fatty lesions called plaques form on the inner lining of blood vessels. Plaque growth narrows arteries, thereby restricting blood flow and causing chest pains and other symptoms. Plaques sometimes rupture. The resulting blood clots can spur heart attacks or strokes. Medicine has been at an impasse in the search for therapies that prevent plaque growth and rupture. Statin drugs that lower bad cholesterol work, but they have not eliminated heart attacks and strokes, must be taken daily for life, and some patients do not tolerate statins. Trials of newer interventions such as niacin have been disappointing, according to Dr. David A. Dichek, the study's senior author and the John Locke Professor of Cardiovascular Research at the University of Washington. "Introducing into the blood vessel wall genes that protect against atherosclerosis is potentially an effective means of preventing or reversing plaque formation and inflammation," Dichek said. "As applied in our study, the introduced genes can produce proteins that counteract the fundamental processes that drive atherosclerosis, including preventing lipid accumulation inside the artery wall and decreasing recruitment of inflammatory cells. We found both of these effects.