Archives
Studying ways to increase blood flow to heart
Canty to use federal grant to devise new therapies to improve heart function
By S.A. UNGER
Contributing Editor
Hibernating myocardium is a condition caused by the progressive narrowing of the heart arteries, resulting in chronic reduction of blood flow to the heart muscle.
While contraction of the heart is depressed, the heart tissue remains viable. Since function can improve if blood flow is restored, it is a reversible cause of heart failure.
John M. Canty Jr. and colleagues in the Center for Research in Cardiovascular Medicine in the School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences are investigating ways in which the heart adapts to chronic reductions in blood flow. Their goal is to discover techniques by which this condition can be diagnosed and to devise new therapies to improve heart function.
Canty, Albert and Elizabeth Rekate Chair in Cardiovascular Disease and director of the university's cardiology research programs, has received a four-year, $700,000 grant from the Department of Veterans Affairs to support a study in which he is using gene transfer by injecting the heart with experimental viruses that contain vascular growth factors in order to try and stimulate development of new or existing blood vessels in the hibernating porcine model.
"Over the last several years, there has been intense interest in developing angiogenic gene transfer therapies to stimulate the development of the coronary collateral circulation as an alternate approach to care for patients with inoperable coronary artery diseases," says Canty. "This investigation will identify the ability of different therapeutic strategies to improve collateral perfusion and reverse chronic ischemic left ventricular dysfunction."
This study is just one of a number of funded investigations currently being conducted by Canty, who is internationally known for his work in the area of chronic adaptations of the heart to ischemia, according to Robert Klocke, chair of the Department of Medicine. In addition to the VA grant, Canty's support includes two grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute that total $3.2 million.
"At the present time, we have very few options other than cardiac surgery or interventional cardiac catheterization to improve blood supply to compromised cardiac muscle," explains Klocke. "Dr. Canty's work has the promise of providing alternate means of improving cardiac blood flow in all patients with heart disease, not just those who are well enough to tolerate invasive procedures."
Since a key feature of all research projects within the center is their potential for direct application to the development of new diagnostics and therapies, collaboration is essential.
"In this regard, we collaborate closely with the UB-VA Center for Positron Emission Tomography, as well as with basic scientists in the medical school" Canty says.