Researchers Discover Biological Therapy for Heart Disease [Part 1]

Researchers Discover Biological Therapy for Heart Disease - Researchers at Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles creates natural pacemaker by inserting a single gene called Tbx18 into a virus and injected the virus that has been engineered into the heart of guinea pigs that were bred to be suffering from arrhythmia.

The gene that triggers the creation of a replica of pacemaker cells located in the upper right chamber of the heart. Tbx18 change of heart muscle cells to become cells of the natural pacemaker.

Director of the institute, Eduardo Marban, said pacemaker cells called the sino-atrial node (SAN) is a collection of about 10,000 cells in 10 trillion cells that make up the heart muscle. He said the new SAN was created by engineering the genes that have the same structure as the natural pacemaker cells. "When we give scientists who specialize in this field and compare the data to see the natural pacemaker cells - which I think is very rare - with which we created by injecting a gene into normal heart cells, they will be difficult to tell the difference, "he said.

Marban estimated five to six billion dollars are spent each year in the world for electronic pacemakers for the millions of patients. But an artificial pacemaker has serious weaknesses. The device planted it can cause life-threatening infections and every five to seven years the patient had to undergo surgery to replace the battery.

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