Jab which cures heart failure by shrinking the 'enlarged' organ could save lives of thousands scientists claim Researchers have successfully tested the injection on animals The "SUMO-1" therapy shrinks bloated hearts, improving circulation Heart disease claims 140,000 victims every year Heart failure that kills thousands of Brits every year could be cured by a simple jab which shrinks the vital organ, according to a new study. Scientists who have reversed the condition in animals by injecting them with a gene now hope tests on patients will be just as successful. They found the "SUMO-1" gene therapy can shrink enlarged hearts, improving their function and increasing blood flow. Heart failure happens when the heart is unable to pump blood adequately. It affects over 750,000 people in the UK - mainly the elderly - and claims 140,000 lives a year. The ¿SUMO-1¿ gene therapy can shrink enlarged hearts, improving their function and increasing blood flow. There are treatments but no cure. In the final experiments before human clinical trials SUMO-1, a gene which is 'missing in action' in heart failure patients, was delivered directly into the organ. Dr Roger Hajjar, who led the study, said: 'SUMO-1 gene therapy may be one of the first treatments that can actually shrink enlarged hearts and significantly improve a damaged heart's life-sustaining function. We are very eager to test this gene therapy in our patients suffering from severe heart failure. Dr Hajjar is already on a path toward approval from the Food and Drug Administration in the US to test the revolutionary treatment on patients. It will be the second gene therapy treatment launched by he and his colleagues at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. The first, named CUPID, is in its final phases after successful tests on animals and substantial clinical improvements in patients. In that project, a gene known as SERCA2 which produces an enzyme critical to the proper pumping of calcium out of cells, is injected via a harmless virus. In heart failure SERCA2 is dysfunctional forcing the heart to work harder and in the process grow larger. The virus carrying SERCA2 is delivered through the coronary arteries into the heart using tiny tubes. Studies show only one dose is required to restore healthy production of the gene's beneficial enzyme. But a study by Dr Hajjar and his researchers published two years ago showed SUMO-1 is also decreased in failing human hearts. The injection could reduce the need for invasive heart surgery, scientists hope Dr Hajjar said: 'The key reason for this translational medicine speed is the outstanding infrastructure we have in the Cardiovascular Research Centre at Mount Sinai where we are able to replicate human heart failure models to test our novel gene therapies. I think this is a really very unique example of rapid translation of a promising medical therapy from an initial discovery to pre-clinical trials.