Gene therapy for cardiovascular diseases has developed from preliminary animal experiments to clinical trials. However, vectors and target genes used currently in gene therapy are mainly focused on viral, nonviral vector and single target gene or monogene. Each vector system has a series of advantages and limitations. Chimeric vectors which combine the advantages of viral and nonviral vector,chimeric target genes which combine two or more target genes and novel gene delivery modes are being developed. In this article, we summarized the progress in chimeric vectors and chimeric genes based cardiovascular gene therapy, which including proliferative or occlusive vascular diseases such as atheroslerosis and restenosis, hypertonic vascular disease such as hypertension and cardiac diseases such as myocardium ischemia, dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure, even heart transplantation. The development of chimeric vector, chimeric gene and their cardiovascular gene therapy is promising.

来源：中国分子心脏病学杂志 2003 年 3卷 6期