Gene therapy in cardiovascular diseases: A review of recent updates

Gene therapy is considered as a promising approach for treating cardiac dysfunction. In this review, we evaluated the clinical trials assessing gene therapy in cardiovascular diseases (CVD) from 2000 to 2017. PubMed and ClinicalTrials.gov (only English language) were searched for clinical trials published between January 2000 and May 2017, using the search terms "gene transfer" OR "gene therapy" and "cardiovascular diseases" and related terms. The trials with sample size lower than 10 patients were excluded. Twenty-six clinical trials on human and animals, including 1543 patients were listed and evaluated. The sample size in 14 trials was lower than 100 patients and in seven trials lower than 20 patients. Eleven trials used plasmid DNA and eight trials used adenovirus, one study used plasmid DNA, adenovirus, and liposome. We detected that gene therapy was a safe approach and improved the symptoms of CVD; however, the effect of gene therapy on the cardiac dysfunction is controversial.