Positive News From Gene Therapy Trial Involving LVHN Angina Patient

The biopharmaceutical company behind a gene therapy designed to help patients with chronic angina by prompting the growth of new blood vessels in the heart said recent trial results met safety and effectiveness objectives.

Lehigh Valley Heart and Vascular Institute is one of just 16 sites working with Delaware County-based XyloCor Therapeutics in the study. The Heart and Vascular Institute has one patient in the study, a Bethlehem Township man in his early 70s who has refractory angina. Angina is chest pain caused when the blood supply to your heart is inadequate and doesn’t match the demand from your heart.

The XyloCor trial is focusing on those with refractory angina – people who have exhausted their treatment options, such as medication, stents and bypass surgery.

“The Heart and Vascular Institute increasingly is being invited to participate in ground-breaking research like the XyloCor gene therapy trial,” Ronald Freudenberger, MD, Physician in Chief at the Heart and Vascular Institute, says. “There are lots of really smart people out there doing great research, trying to develop new therapies, new drugs, new ways of improving heart function.”

The Heart and Vascular Institute was recently asked to participate in another study, one looking at a new way of treating patients with congestive heart failure and obesity. “It’s a very exciting, completely different approach,” Freudenberger says. “Being on the front lines of heart care medicine speaks to the research and clinical expertise of our doctors, but also presents great opportunities for our patients and community.”

The XyloCor gene therapy approach looks to prompt heart muscle cells to produce more of a naturally occurring protein called human vascular endothelial growth factor, or VEGF. According to XyloCor, the increased VEGF is designed to lead to the formation of new blood vessels in the heart that would bypass diseased blood vessels and increase blood flow to the heart. That means new pathways for blood and oxygen to reach your heart muscle, allowing the supply to meet the demand from exertion.

The principal investigator in the XyloCor study, Thomas Povsic, MD, Professor of Medicine, Duke University School of Medicine, said in a XyloCor statement that evidence shows the gene therapy is “a scientifically‑sound approach for achieving a biological effect that has the potential to improve patients’ quality of life.”

XyloCor said nearly all trial participants had marked limitations on ordinary physical activity but noted that six months after the gene therapy treatment, nearly half could engage in common physical activity without experiencing angina. The company says it looks forward to continued research and development amid ongoing discussions with the Food and Drug Administration and other regulatory authorities.

“Results like XyloCor’s are exciting,” Freudenberger says. “Advances in heart care have been dramatic in recent years, and with continued research, that trend will continue.”