Thomas Povsic, MD, PhD, on Ongoing Research With XC001 Angina Gene Therapy
The interventional cardiologist and professor, Duke University School of Medicine, discussed other populations that may benefit from XC001 and the challenges and opportunities with a surgical delivery of treatment.
“One key area of research is to administer this surgically while the patient is undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). We know that a substantial proportion of patients who undergo CABG surgery have areas of the heart that can't be revascularized, maybe the vessel is too small to sew a bypass graft into or maybe they don't have bypass grafts that are suitable for all of the heart that needs to be revascularized. So, one interesting area of research would be to administer this vector while the patient is already undergoing surgery, this would have minimal risk, but potentially would have benefit in terms of improving the extent of revascularisation.”
Patients with refractory angina treated with epicardial delivery of XC001 (XyloCor Therapeutics, encoberminogene rezmadenovec) gene therapy tolerated the therapy well and experienced some clinical benefits. The updated data are from the phase 1/2 EXACT clinical trial (NCT04125732) and showcased improvements in total exercise duration and reductions in ischemic burden and ischemic symptoms.
CGTLive spoke with principal investigator Thomas Povsic, MD, PhD, professor of medicine, cardiology, Duke University School of Medicine, to learn more about future potential populations and applications for XC001 gene therapy. One consideration with the treatment is that it is currently being evaluated only as a surgical approach, which limits the conditions that could realistically receive XC001 treatment. However, the surgical approach offers an opportunity to administer XC001 while patients are receiving another surgery, like CABG surgery, to maximize the extent of revascularization. Povsic also touched on other conditions that XC001 could be evaluated in, such as peripheral vascular disease.
