The Hindu : `Faulty genes cause for heart attacks'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Mar 21, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Madurai

`Faulty genes cause for heart attacks'

By Our Staff Reporter

MADURAI, MARCH 20. The cause for a sudden heart attack at a young age may be attributed to inherited `faulty genes'. Research has shown that there is a high level of faulty gene cases present in India, according to C. Rajamanickam, Fellow of National Academy of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, and Head, Biochemistry Department, Madurai-Kamaraj University.

These `faulty genes' are leading even teetotallers to cardiac disorders and heart failure in many cases. Research efforts are being made to find out non-invasive protocols in gene therapy, which would lead to new therapeutic avenues for cardiac disorders of this type.

A laboratory research process is currently underway in the university, engaging in exploiting a cardiac-specific protein that could act as a gene-carrier so as to deliver right genes required in the heart.

``We are attempting to develop a gene therapy for treatment of heart disorders,'' he told The Hindu about the faulty gene theory. He said there was a high probability for cardiac problem if there was a change in the base sequence of the genes, which were inherited. A heart muscle research was now looking into the clinical state of the heart in cardiac disorders that lead eventually to heart failure due to stiffness of the muscle. The molecules, which triggered heart enlargement, were being studied. Prof. Rajamanickam said cardiac deaths were on the rise in the country and hence more research was required to find out various disorders of the heart. The global burden of morbidity and mortality due to these diseases was immense.

A few laboratory trials were conducted already, he said. Understanding of molecular stimuli formed the fundamental basis for further research. ``Our studies will be significant as cardiac problems are becoming more and more inherited in nature.'' The gene therapy when ready would be ``very cheap and inexpensive'' and all hospitals could adopt the developed techniques. Bio-informatics would also be used to design drugs, he informed.

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