December 8, 1998

Patent To Increase Angiogenesis In Coronary Treatments Issued To Indiana University School of Medicine

INDIANAPOLIS--An Indiana University School of Medicine cardiologist has designed a technique to augment the therapeutic growth of blood vessels to repair the hearts of patients with vascular or coronary disease.

Traditional therapy for these patients usually involves bypass surgery or angioplasty. However, researchers are investigating new techniques for making the heart repair itself through a process called angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is the process by which new blood vessels grow. For cancerous tumors, researchers are attempting to find methods to shut down the new vessel growth which feeds the tumor, a process called anti-angiogenesis. However, cardiologists are optimistic that the growth of new vessels in the heart may, in time, replace some invasive procedures.

Keith L. March, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor of medicine, has refined an existing technique that, although relatively new, has interesting clinical results. In an effort to increase the angiogenic response of the heart, surgeons and cardiologists are using lasers to create channels in the heart. The method is called Transmyocardial Laser Revascularization (TMR). The channels appear to encourage the angiogenic effect that nature provided as a way to heal a damaged heart.

Dr. March and his team of researchers want to use angiogenic proteins or genes which encode angiogenic growth factors to further stimulate the beneficial effects of TMR. Their research has resulted in a patent, awarded Nov. 24 to Dr. March and his colleagues. It is the 10th in a series of patents awarded to Dr. March and his research team focusing on technological improvements for clinical use.

"Some people grow blood vessels very well when needed to compensate for other blocked vessels while others, unfortunately, do not," Dr. March said. "We think there are genetic or biochemical reasons for that. Whether the patients who do not grow them well suffer from a lack of a needed growth factor or the over-abundance of a growth inhibitor, we don't know."

To offset such a difficulty, Dr. March's patent proposes that TMR be used in conjunction with biochemical or genetic materials. The angiogenic proteins or genes with encoding angiogenic growth factors will be inserted into or around the channels created by the laser at the time of the TMR procedure. Trials using only the angiogenic proteins or genes have shown promising results, as have TMR trials, but the use of the combination of the two methods to reinforce one another now awaits testing in the clinical arena, Dr. March said.

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