Gene therapy for a failing heart

Heart failure, a leading cause of death worldwide, is partly due to poor renewal capacity of adult heart muscle cells (cardiomyocytes). Liu et al. used gene therapy to knock down the endogenous Hippo signaling pathway in cardiomyocytes of adult pigs after myocardial infarction. Hippo pathway knockdown induced these cells to undergo self-limiting division, resulting in effective tissue renewal with improved heart function in treated pigs. These findings suggest that Hippo pathway knockdown in cardiomyocytes may provide an opportunity for heart repair after injury in humans.

Read more...