Trials and tribulations of cell therapy for heart failure: an update on ongoing trials
Jianyi Jay Zhang1,2, Steven M Pogwizd3, Keiichi Fukuda4
1Department of Biomedical Engineering, School of Medicine, School of Engineering, The University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, AL, USA. jayzhang@uab.edu.
Insights
Cell therapy offers a promising approach for heart failure (HF) treatment by regenerating damaged heart muscle. Ongoing trials are evaluating safety, efficacy, and novel protocols to advance cardiac repair.
Area of Science:
- Cardiology
- Regenerative Medicine
- Cell Therapy
Background:
- Heart failure (HF) is a leading cause of global mortality with a poor prognosis.
- Loss of cardiomyocytes and limited cardiac regeneration pose significant challenges in treating ischemic HF.
- Current treatment for irreversible heart damage relies on heart transplantation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To review ongoing clinical trials for cell-based and cell product-based therapies for heart failure.
- To assess the progress and challenges in cell therapy for cardiac repair and regeneration.
- To identify key factors for the clinical translation of cardiac regenerative therapies.
Main Methods:
- Overview of current clinical trials in cell therapy for HF.
- Evaluation of safety and efficacy of cell-based therapeutics.
- Exploration of novel treatment protocols including dosing, delivery, and patient selection.
Main Results:
- Cell therapy has evolved as a promising strategy for cardiac repair.
- Substantial barriers in preclinical and clinical studies have been encountered but are being addressed.
- Ongoing trials are investigating various aspects of cell therapy for HF treatment.
Conclusions:
- Findings from ongoing trials are crucial for the clinical translation of cardiac regenerative therapies.
- Evaluating safety, efficacy, and novel protocols will advance the field of cell therapy for HF.
- The field continues to progress by learning from past research and exploring new treatment strategies.
Abstract:
Heart failure (HF) remains a leading cause of mortality, responsible for 13% of all deaths worldwide. The prognosis for patients with HF is poor, with only a 50% survival rate within 5 years. A major challenge of ischaemia-driven HF is the loss of cardiomyocytes, compounded by the minimal regenerative capacity of the adult heart. To date, replacement of irreversibly damaged heart muscle can only be achieved by complete heart transplantation. In the past 20 years, cell therapy has emerged and evolved as a promising avenue for cardiac repair and regeneration. During this time, cell therapy for HF has encountered substantial barriers in both preclinical studies and clinical trials but the field continues to progress and evolve from lessons learned from such research. In this Review, we provide an overview of ongoing trials of cell-based and cell product-based therapies for the treatment of HF. Findings from these trials will facilitate the clinical translation of cardiac regenerative and reparative therapies not only by evaluating the safety and efficacy of specific cell-based therapeutics but also by establishing the feasibility of novel or underexplored treatment protocols such as repeated intravenous dosing, personalized patient selection based on pharmacogenomics, systemic versus intramural cell delivery, and epicardial engraftment of engineered tissue products.
More Related Videos
Related Concept Videos
01:26Heart Failure Drugs: Inhibitors of Renin-Angiotensin System
01:21Stem Cell Therapy for Tissue Regeneration
Types of Stem Cells used in Stem Cell Therapy
The two main cell...