Lowering cholesterol through gene therapy is another target, said Dr. Joon Lee, Pitt's director of interventional cardiology. Lee said that not one of the large trials has shown a clear benefit yet, but definitive, randomized trials are only just beginning. Including smaller, single center studies, cardiovascular gene therapy trials may number around 50. Pitt researchers will tackle is congestive heart failure, which occurs when cardiac muscles are made weak from heart attacks or, less often, from viral illness. As the heart becomes a less efficient pump, fluid builds up in the lungs and causes breathing difficulties.
Heart failure is treated with diuretics and medications to make the heart contract more powerfully.
When the heart is first damaged, it grows a little bigger so that it has more contractile power, just as a rubber band has greater recoil when it is stretched. But a rubber band loses its elastic properties when it is used repeatedly. It becomes floppy and limp. Experts blame a chemical messenger called tumor necrosis factor, which is used in the healing process throughout the body. Congestive heart failure patients have excess levels of the chemical messenger, which leads to the heart's enlargement.