Gene therapy could soon join the electronic pacemaker as a treatment for a weak heart. By inserting a specific gene into heart-muscle cells, researchers can restore a normal heart rate in pigs — at least temporarily.
Electronic pacemakers restore regular function to slowing and arrhythmic hearts by using electricity to stimulate their beating — a function usually peformed by the sinoatrial node, a cluster of a few thousand cardiac cells that signal the heart to pump at a regular rate. Although implanted pacemakers are widely used, they require an invasive surgery to be installed, carry the risk of infection, and can set off alarms during airport security checks.
To overcome these limitations, a team led by Eduardo Marbán, a cardiologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California, sought to coax heart cells outside the sinoatrial node to keep the beat using a less invasive approach. The findings are reported today in Science Translational Medicine1.
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Marbán says that his method is simpler than other biological approaches to steady irregularly beating hearts, such as inducing cardiac muscle cells to a pluripotent state, then coaxing them to differentiate into pacemaker cells. But he cautions that the effect of the gene therapy may be temporary.
Read the full, original story: Gene therapy creates biological pacemaker
