New trials of gene therapy for heart failure are announced

The British Heart Foundation has announced the launch of two new trials of gene therapy for heart failure. They represent the culmination of 20 years of laboratory research by staff at Imperial College London and the Royal Brompton Hospital, London, and will be the first of their kind carried out in the United Kingdom, the researchers said.

Alexander Lyon, a consultant cardiologist at the Royal Brompton and the UK lead investigator, emphasised that heart failure was a major problem. “In the UK alone we have somewhere between 750 000 and a million patients we know about. And there’s a …