Baylor College of Medicine researchers explore gene therapy as treatment for coronary artery disease

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine recently did a follow-up review with patients with severe coronary artery disease treated 10 years ago with a new angiogenic gene therapy method to help rebuild their damaged blood vessels.

According to a college press release, "doctors at Baylor College of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College (where the clinical trial and review took place) and Stony Brook University Medical Center report the outcomes are promising and open the door for larger trials to begin. The common treatment for severe coronary artery disease is coronary artery bypass surgery, which works by redirecting blood flow around the diseased or blocked area of the heart. However, for those involved in this trial, the blood vessels that normally would be used to redirect the flow of blood were not healthy enough to do so."

The next step is further research to study larger groups of patients and to create a placebo control study to compare outcome results, according to researchers. Weill Cornell Medical College, Weill Cornell Medical College-Qatar and Baylor College of Medicine are in the planning stages of a new clinical trial.

This study was funded in part by a grant from the Lisa and James Cohen Foundation and supported in part by the Qatar Foundation and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar.

The announcement was made Thursday, Dec. 20.

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