Gene therapy for ischemic brain disease with special reference to vascular dementia

Abstract

Vascular dementia is the second largest cause of dementia in the elderly. There is no effective treatment for cerebral infarction, which is one of the common causes of vascular dementia. In rodent experimental models, gene therapies using growth factors such as brain‐derived neurotrophic factor, fibroblast growth factor‐2, hepatocyte growth factor, glial cell‐line derived neurotrophic factor or vascular endothelial growth factor had beneficial effects on neuroprotection, neurogenesis and/or angiogenesis. Thus, gene therapies can be expected to be useful as new treatments for ischemic diseases, especially for vascular dementia. In clinical trials, gene therapy for vascular dementia still has some problems to be solved, such as the safety and effectiveness of vectors and delivery systems, the timing of treatment, and cell‐specific targeting strategies. The most important thing might be the definition of the best combination of these subjects for every target disease.