Gene therapy: 'Heart-healing virus' trial starts
Source: BBC NEWS
Patients in the UK have been enrolled into a trial to see if an engineered virus can be used to heal their damaged and struggling hearts.
The trial will use a virus to introduce genetic material into heart muscle to reverse the organ's decline.
The British Heart Foundation said the idea had "great potential" but needed to be proven in clinical trials.
Heart failure affects more than 750,000 people in the UK and can leave some people too weak to climb the stairs.
It occurs when the organ is damaged, for example after being starved of oxygen in a heart attack, and becomes too weak to effectively pump blood around the body.
There have been huge medical leaps in keeping patients alive after a heart attack, but the consequence is a rapidly growing number of people living with heart failure.
Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-22336300
dotymed
(5,610 posts)Are there any in the U.S.? I am 52 and can barely move. I force myself (at high consequence) to live as normal as possible. I raise a 16 y.o. son and life is not good. I know it is reflected in my negative posts. There is no way to describe the bone weary exhaustion caused from the hardening of the parietal membrane surrounding the heart. I am in the "final stages."
I cook, clean, etc... but only because of sheer will-power. I want to lie in bed all day. I get up at 5 a m to start everyday. When I was healthy, it was 3 a m, to begin my prep as a (often traveling) Union carpenter.
I would give anything for some hope....
zeeland
(247 posts)left as long as you can, there are so many amazing treatments around the corner.
Many involve stem cells. Keep an eye on clinical trials
taking place at medical centers in your area.
Good Luck.
hue
(4,949 posts)Indeed it is better not to give up hope.
There are many clinical trials going on and each participant is screened for the special trial they desire to become a subject in. Artificial hearts are smaller, portable and depending on Your cause for heart failure can meet Your special needs. New trials begin each month and end either d/t the success or failure of the product or drug.
http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/factsheets/clintrial.html
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/services/faqctgov.html
Are you on meds? They helped my mother quite a bit. That was years ago, so I do not recall what she was taking.
dotymed
(5,610 posts)Also, I have severe P.A.D. which prevents me from becoming a transplant recipient. I guess I have the arteries of an 80 y.o. That was 10 years ago. My extremities feel like balloons being constantly pricked (tingling).
As a carpenter, I had a steel beam fall 3 stories and land on my hard hat. I refuse spinal surgery, I know too many people who have had bad results. I have many pinched nerves, sciatica, etc.. Now TN. has decided that you must go to a pain management Dr. if you have chronic pain. I just used my last prescriptions from my family Dr. yesterday. When I moved here, 3 years ago, he promised that he would write my prescriptions "as is." I spent a year (when I felt much better) having a Dr. experiment to determine what medication combo's worked best for me. That was miserable. I still refuse the really powerful pain killers. I do not want that. I prefer to be aware of my life. I cannot afford all of the extra costs associated with these high priced specialists. They have 70 y.o.'s being seen twice a month, so they can count their medications!
I used to date a pharmacist and know how they determine if people exhibit "drug seeking behavior." Every patient of a "pain Dr." is considered a "drug seeker."
powerful lobbies to destroy lives for profit..
siligut
(12,272 posts)I sure hope this trial goes well.
marlakay
(11,370 posts)dotymed
(5,610 posts)much commercial tee vee. Could you explain?
marlakay
(11,370 posts)Of medical experiments in it and some sci fi.
chowder66
(9,011 posts)risking their lives for cures that could benefit so many!!