Abstract: Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is one of the common causes of death worldwide. During myocardial infarction, due to the loss of the function of involved cardiomyocytes, the cardiac function is impaired and even develops into heart failure. The first-line treatment of AMI is the reperfusion of the occluded coronary artery by percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) as soon as possible. However, the current clinical treatments such as surgery and drugs can not save the dead cardiomyocytes, and ventricular dysfunction may still occur after large area myocardial infarction. With the continuous development of life science, the targeted gene therapy is gradually used in clinic, which has become a possible and effective intervention for AMI. However, the efficiency of gene transmission to the target tissues still limits its application. Ultrasound targeted microbubble destruction (UTMD) is a new technique for mediating gene transfection, which has potential therapeutic value in cardiovascular diseases by delivering genes to specific anatomical and pathological sites. This article reviews UTMD-mediated gene delivery in the treatment of myocardial infarction.

Key words: myocardial infarction, molecular targeted therapy, gene therapy, ultrasound-targeted microbubble destruction, review