Somatic gene transfer for the treatment of pulmonary vascular disease
| In collaboration with Song Li, M.D., who resides in the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Bruce Pitt and his research team are working on a revolutionary treatment for various pulmonary vascular disease. Currently, non-viral vectors capable of being targeted to pulmonary endothelium for somatic gene transfer of plasmid DNA or oligonucleotides are being developed. An example of transgene expression of the reporter molecule (beta galactosidase) in murine lung is shown in the figure to the right. Enhanced efficiency and greatly improved targeting to pulmonary endothelium has been accomplished by including an anti-PECAM antibody to the quaternary complex. This also results in minimizing toxicity and provides rational approach to pharmacogenetic therapy for pulmonary vascular disease, such as pulmonary hypertension or acute lung injury. | 
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