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A ‘Cure for Heart Disease’? A Single Shot Succeeds in Monkeys:
In the first gene-editing experiment of its kind, scientists have disabled two genes in monkeys that raise the risk for heart disease. Humans carry the genes as well, and the experiment has raised hopes that a leading killer may one day be tamed.
“This could be the cure for heart disease,” said Dr. Michael Davidson, director of the Lipid Clinic at the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research.
But it will be years before human trials can begin, and gene-editing technology so far has a mixed tracked record. It is much too early to know whether the strategy will be safe and effective in humans; even the monkeys must be monitored for side effects or other treatment failures for some time to come.
The results were presented on Saturday at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research, this year held virtually with about 3,700 attendees around the world. The scientists are writing up their findings, which have not yet been peer-reviewed or published.
The researchers set out to block two genes: PCSK9, which helps regulate levels of LDL cholesterol; and ANGPTL3, part of the system regulating triglyceride, a type of blood fat. Both genes are active in the liver, which is where cholesterol and triglycerides are produced. People who inherit mutations that destroyed the genes’ function do not get heart disease.
[...] Not only did the system work in 13 monkeys, the researchers reported, but it appeared that every liver cell was edited. After gene editing, the monkeys’ LDL levels dropped by 59 percent within two weeks. The ANGPTL3 gene editing led to a 64 percent decline in triglyceride levels.
One danger of gene editing is the process may result in modification of DNA that scientists are not expecting. “You will never be able to have no off-target effects,” warned Dr. Deepak Srivastava, president of the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco.
In treating a condition as common as heart disease, he added, even an uncommon side effect can mean many patients are affected. So far, however, the researchers say that they have not seen any inadvertent editing of other genes.
Another question is how long the effect on cholesterol and triglyceride levels will last, Dr. Davidson said. “We hope it will be one-and-done, but we have to validate that with clinical trials,” he said.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 01 2020, @11:00PM
And there are currently a lot of people, growing increasingly wealthy.
People reduce to gluttony quite readily, all by themselves. For example, a lot of restaurants in the developed world (ok, the US in particular) get customers by offering a lot of food. It's not PhDs deciding that this is the secret sauce that will pull in customers, it's just human nature.
And I already noted many ways that one can handsomely profit from food production by other means than merely increasing consumption through psychological woo.