This Heart Failure Gene Therapy May Be on It’s Way to Clinical Trials

(HealthDay News) — Failing hearts nearly returned to full function in laboratory pigs after they received an experimental gene therapy. New research shows the gene therapy didn’t just prevent heart failure, a condition disproportionately affecting Black Americans, from worsening in four lab pigs, but actually prompted hearts to repair and grow stronger. “Even though the animals are still facing stress on the heart to induce heart failure, we saw recovery of heart function and that the heart also stabilizes or shrinks,” said co-senior researcher Dr. TingTing Hong, an associate professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Utah. “We call this reverse remodeling,” Hong added in a university news release. “It’s going back to what the normal heart should look like.” The gene therapy focuses on a critical heart protein called cardiac bridging integrator 1 (cBIN1). Reduced levels of cBIN1 impair the heart muscle’s ability to contract. Previous studies have shown that heart failure patients have lower levels of cBIN1, and that the lower a person’s levels are, the greater their risk for severe heart problems, researchers said. “When cBIN1 is down, we know patients are not going to do well,” said co-senior researcher Dr. Robin Shaw, director of...