Gene therapy heals broken hearts: No surgery needed INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Heart disease remains the leading cause of death in the United States, responsible for about 1 in every 5 deaths each year. Worldwide, cardiovascular disease claims nearly 18 million lives annually, more than any oth er condition. Now, researchers are working on a new way to help hearts heal after a heart attack, not with surgery or stents, but with gene therapy designed to strengthen the heart from within. In a Duke University lab, a living human heart tissue is beating on its own outside of a body. Biomedical engineer Nenad Bursac is testing new ways to help hearts heal after a heart attack. “Broken heart medically is actually a heart that underwent a heart attack, and it’s slowly deteriorating over time.” After a heart attack, heart muscle tissue damage is permanent. Bursac said, “Once they’re dead, they’re dead forever. And that’s irreversible.” Researchers in the Bursac Lab are developing a new gene therapy, not to regrow the heart, but to make the remaining muscle stronger and more efficient. “It improves how the heart functions electrically, and the second thing it does…it actually improves how strong heart cells contract.” They start with human heart cells that grow into heart tissue. This tissue is used to deliver genetic instructions that can help damaged heart cells beat stronger and remove dangerous heart rhythms. “Through gene therapy work, we make the rest of the heart become stronger,” Bursac said. The therapy can be delivered through a catheter, with no need for open heart surgery. Bursac believes it will be a one-time treatment. A new approach to a broken heart and a future where more hearts keep beating stronger and longer. Researchers say what makes this approach different is that while stents can help keep blood vessels open, they don’t actually improve how strongly the heart muscle contracts. This new gene therapy is designed to do both. If future testing continues to show promise, human clinical trials could be next, one day helping millions living with heart damage avoid heart failure. ...read more read less