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'Smart Gene Therapy' Protects Against Damage from Heart Attack

The therapy combines a therapeutic gene with a genetic "sensor" that recognizes and responds to the oxygen deprivation that follows the reduced blood flow, or ischemia, from coronary artery disease and heart attack.
As soon as the oxygen declines, the sensor turns on the therapeutic gene, thereby protecting the heart. In addition to its potential for patients with heart disease, the strategy might also prove useful for any condition in which tissues are susceptible to loss of blood supply, including stroke, shock, trauma and sepsis, the researchers said.
The finding marks the first time a therapeutic gene complete with a built-in sensor that allows the gene to respond immediately to the condition it treats has been shown to work

While drugs that can protect heart muscle are available, most patients barely make it to the hospital in time to take advantage of them

The team developed a "therapeutic gene construct" that contains both DNA sequences that can detect oxygen deficiency and a therapeutic human gene -- heme-oxygenase 1 -- that has been shown to protect cells. They then inserted the gene construct into a harmless virus known as adeno-associated virus, whose job was to transport the therapeutic gene into the genetic material
create a physiological on-off switch that will automatically turn on the therapeutic gene when ischemia causes dangerous levels of oxygen deprivation