It is 18 months since Carol Gedda suffered a massive heart attack. It left her with just 20% of her heart functioning. She is among 200 patients being enrolled on a gene therapy trial to test whether introducing genetic material into damaged heart cells can improve their function.
The researchers have ‘hidden’ the gene inside a genetically modified virus which is able to latch on to heart muscle cells but is believed to be entirely harmless. The virus acts like a Trojan horse, delivering the extra DNA into the nucleus of the heart cells. The hope is the gene will prompt the heart cells to produce more of a protein to repair some of the damaged heart muscle.
Read the full, original story here: Heart gene therapy trial begins
