Cell and Gene-Based Approaches to Heart Failure
This article was originally published in Start Up
Executive Summary
In heart failure, neither drugs nor devices can address a cascade of interrelated biomolecular and hemodynamic processes. These ultimately result in increased heart muscle fatigue, adverse ventricular remodeling, continuing loss of left ventricular ejection fraction, and all the other conditions that have created, in 2006, a heart failure product industry with $2.8 billion in product revenues, according to Current and Emerging Technologies for the Management of Heart Failure in the US, a report recently published by Medtech Insight. Looking to the future, there are currently a number of academic research institutions and biotechnology companies focused on the prophylaxis, containment, and potential reversal of the progression of heart failure with cellular transplants and gene therapy designed to accomplish myocardial tissue repair.