METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR COMBINING INJURY-MEDIATED THERAPY AND DRUG DELIVERY

摘要

The invention provides a method of enhancing injury-induced revascularization of a tissue as treatment of a disease, such as coronary artery disease. The method involves (i) creating injury in a tissue, e.g., as a result of mechanical, chemical, electromagnetic, or thermal perturbation, by making a channel in the tissue (e.g., muscle, such as cardiac muscle) by use of, e.g., a laser (a carbon dioxide, holmium:yttrium-aluminum garnet (HO:YAG), or thulium-holmium-chromium (THC-YAG) laser), an ultrasonic device, or a thermal probe, and (ii) injecting into the tissue a revascularization-promoting molecule (e.g., a protein, such as a pro-angiogenic factor, for example, vascular endothelial growth factor, fibroblast growth factor, platelet derived growth factor, insulin-like growth factor, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factor, hepatocyte growth factor, proliferin, angiotropin, or angiopoietin) or a nucleic acid molecule (e.g., naked DNA) encoding a revascularization-promoting molecule. Also included in the invention is an apparatus and a kit used to practice the above-described method.