The injection — an adenoviral 5 vector that delivers three isoforms of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to the heart — is delivered through a minithoracotomy.

Trial Results

In the EXACT study, no severe adverse events were attributed to the treatment itself. There were 20 severe adverse events in 13 patients, but they were due to surgery and were within expectations.

The study measured 12-month changes in four markers of cardiac function in treated patients, which showed that:

• Total exercise duration increased from an average (± standard deviation [SD]) of 359.9 (± 105.55) seconds at baseline to 477.6 (SD, ±174.7) seconds
• Total myocardial perfusion deficit on PET decreased by 10.2%
• Time to onset of ST depression during exercise tolerance testing increased by 103.1 (95% CI, 26.7-179.5) seconds
• Angina frequency decreased by 8.8 (95% CI, 4.6-13.0) episodes.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/angina-gene-therapy-coaxes-heart-vessel-growth-2024a10008mx