Reengineering Life
A Gene-Editing Shot Could Protect Against Heart Attacks
The treatment successfully lowered cholesterol in monkeys
Reengineering Life is a series from OneZero about the astonishing ways genetic technology is changing humanity and the world around us.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death globally, killing nearly 18 million people each year. It’s often caused by a buildup of cholesterol, a waxy substance in the blood. But curiously, some people with rare genetic mutations are naturally protected against high cholesterol. Consequently, these people have a dramatically lower risk of heart attack, a form of heart disease.
That has led scientists to consider whether tweaking the DNA code in people without this beneficial trait could lower their cholesterol levels and protect them against heart disease for life.
One biotech company is putting that idea to the test. A single injection of a gene-editing treatment successfully lowered “bad” LDL cholesterol in 14 monkeys, according to Sekar Kathiresan, co-founder and CEO of Verve Therapeutics. He announced the findings on June 27 at the virtual annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Kathiresan tells OneZero that the approach could be “an entirely new way to…
