Abstract
A significant percentage of patients have coronary artery disease that is too advanced or diffuse for percutaneous or surgical intervention. Therapeutic angiogenesis is a treatment modality to induce vessel formation that is being developed for patients with advanced coronary disease not amenable to currently available interventions. A number of approaches to induce coronary collateralization are being developed. These include gene, protein, cellular and miRNA modalities, each of which have advantages and disadvantages. At this time, no modality has emerged as the single clear choice, and combination therapies may provide synergistic benefits. However, there have been a number of recent studies advancing our knowledge as to how we can refine procollateralizing treatments. In this article, we will examine some recent successes and future obstacles in the effort to bring therapeutic angiogenesis to patients.
Financial & competing interests disclosure
Funding for this project was provided to Frank W Sellke by The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (RO1HL46716, RO1HL69024 and RO1HL85647), and to Michael P Robich (5T32-HL0074). Frank W Sellke serves on an adjudication committee for CSL Behring (PA, USA). Funding was also received from the Irving Bard Memorial Fellowship for Michael P Robich and Louis M Chu. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.