Gene Therapy Success

 A group of researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered a gene therapy to successfully treat heart failure.

The product that is assisting the enzyme that promotes an ailing heart to pump more efficiently is called SERCA2a made by MYDICAR.

The gene SERCA2a was created by a team led by Roger J. Hajjar, MD, Research Director of Mount Sinai’s Wiener Family Cardiovascular Research Laboratories and the Arthur & Janet Ross Professor of Cardiology, Medicine, and Gene and Cell Medicine at Mount Sinai School of Medicine.

The team did early in 1999 identify the potentials of SERCA2a as a gene therapy treatment.
Studies have been shown time and time again that SERCA2a is aiding to stop the severity of heart failure. This type of gene therapy has been announced to medical societies and cardiology professionals all over the world that research proves that this therapy can treat patients that have advanced heart failure safe and effectively.

Study trials were preformed on a group of 39 patients that were selected at random,who had been suffering from heart failure to receive the gene. After the patients were injected, they were evaluated over several months and improvements were documented. It is unclear if there will be availability for this gene therapy for the current patient population with heart failure but may be a possible solution for a group.

The U.S Centers for Disease Control & Prevention estimates that there are around 5.8 million Americans that have heart failures. New Cases of about 670,000 are diagnosed annually. Statistics show that one out of every 5 people that are said to have heart failure, pass on within a year.