- Title: ISRAEL: GENES TRANSPLANTED INTO HEART OF CARDIAC PATIENT.
- Date: 13th April 2005
- Summary: (BN11) PETAH-TIKVA, ISRAEL (APRIL 12, 2005) (REUTERS - ACCESS ALL) 1. NEWS CONFERENCE 2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PROFESSOR RAN KORNOWSKI, DIRECTOR OF CARDIAC CATHETERISATION INSTITUTE IN THE CARDIOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF RABIN MEDICAL CENTRE SAYING: "I would say that this is the first time ever in Israel that we were able to combine in a clinical setting
- Embargoed: 28th April 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: PETAH-TIKVA, ISRAEL
- Country: Israel
- Reuters ID: LVABPVCVM9HZNQ0UJNUQEJ9HQSS3
- Story Text: Israeli doctors mark breakthrough in revolutionary
gene transplant into a cardiac patient.
In a revolutionary procedure, an Israeli team of
doctors injected genes into the heart of a 68-year-old
severe cardiac patient.
The experiment, which is part of a multi-centre
international trial, was undertaken at the Cardiology
Department of Rabin Medical Center in the Israeli city of
Petah-Tikva.
The genes, VEGF (Vascular Endolathelial Growth Factor)
were injected into the heart of the patient to stimulate
the growth of new blood vessels in order to allow improved
blood flow to the heart. The patient underwent the
procedure on Monday (April 4) and was released the next day
without complications.
The institute is the first medical centre worldwide to
embark on this innovative, clinical trial and it says it
marks a major breakthrough in the field of genetics and
catheterisation.
The gene is transplanted into a replication deficient
Adeno virus that underwent special procession in order to
remove the site in the virus which causes the disease. The
virus becomes a gene carrier that in turn is dispersed to
various focal points of the heart.
The virus, injected into 12 points in the heart, targets
those areas which lack sufficient blood flow.
"I would say that this is the first time ever in Israel
that we were able to combine in a clinical setting, on
experimental basis, a gene transfer approach. We are
talking about gene therapy when we deliver the vector of
Vascular Endolathelial Growth Factor (VEGF) gene delivered
by Adeno virus which is a replication deficient Adeno virus
into a patient's heart, where the patient has refectory
myocardial ischemia with a lot of chest pain and has no other option
ex
cept for this experimental treatment" said
Professor Ran Kornowski, Director of Cardiac
Catheterisation Institute in the Cardiology Department of
Rabin Medical Centre.
The clinical trial will include 129 cardiac patients who
have not responded to any other treatments. The success of
the treatment will be measured by factors, such as results
of exercise capacity, nuclear cardiology examinations,
severity of chest pain symptoms, echocardiography and the
overall improvement in the patient's condition.
Professor Kornowski and Doctor Shmuel Fuchs, a senior
cardiologist, initiated the idea of gene transplantation 7
years ago, along with a team of researchers from the United
States. They pursued their ideas and research with GenVec
and Cordis, a Johnson & Johnson company.
The patient, Amos Ben Yossef said he felt excellent
from the moment he underwent procedure. "It is difficult to
explain how, but since the moment it was carried out I feel
excellent. The pain I had in my chest is completely gone"
Ben Yossef told Reuters television.
This is the first clinical trial in this field. Medical
centres in some countries in Europe will begin carrying out
further trials in the near future.
ends
- Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None