Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) gene therapy could be used to treat patients with severe peripheral arterial disease (PAD), suggest results of a phase I clinical trial.
This finding could be “cautiously interpreted” to indicate that intramuscular injection of naked plasmid DNA encoding HGF is safe, feasible, and can achieve successful improvement of ischemic limbs as sole therapy, remark Ryuichi Morishita (Osaka University, Japan) and team.
In a previous study by the researchers, ankle-brachial pressure index (ABI) was significantly increased in patients with PAD who were treated with HGF from 0.46 at baseline to 0.59 at 8 weeks after injection.
View the original article here: Gene therapy applied to peripheral arterial disease – News-Medical.net
