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SAN FRANCISCO, CA December 10, 2020 Calcific aortic valve disease is not only the most common valve disease in the elderly, it s also the third leading cause of heart disease overall. For those affected, calcium starts to accumulate in their heart valves and vessels over time, until they harden like bone. As a result, blood flow out of the heart s pumping chamber to the body gets obstructed, leading to heart failure. Yet no medical therapy currently exists. All patients can do is wait for the calcification (or hardening) to become bad enough that they need surgery to replace their valve.
After 15 years of unrelenting work, a team of scientists from Gladstone Institutes has now discovered a potential drug candidate for heart valve disease that works in both human cells and animals and is ready to move toward a clinical trial. Their findings were just published in the journal