New jab would act like a one-off ‘vaccination’ against heart attack

It works by ‘knocking out’ gene which raises levels of cholesterol in blood

Scientists say it could cut the risk of heart attack by 90 per cent

Still in development, but after tests it could be available in a decade

A single injection that slashes the risk of heart attack by up to 90% could be available within 10 years, scientists say.

The jab uses DNA-editing technology to ‘knock out’ a liver gene believed to raise levels of cholesterol in the bloodstream.

The one-off treatment has already been tested successfully on mice, reducing the blood concentrations of cholesterol in the animals by 35 to 40 per cent within days.

‘If you had a therapy that targeted the liver, changed the genome – and if it were totally safe – then at least in theory you could think of this therapy as something like a vaccination

‘It could be a one-time treatment, a permanent alteration. If you used this in a population, you could reduce the occurrence of heart attack by 30, 50, 90 per cent.’

He said although the research was at a very early stage, the first trial patients could be offered the treatment within a decade.

The jab targets a liver gene called PCSK9 which is known to regulate levels of harmful cholesterol, known by scientists as low-density lipoprotein (LDL).

The research followed a study by another group of experts who found three per cent of people have a mutation of the gene which leads to low cholesterol and reduced vulnerability to heart attacks.

Dr Musunuru said: ‘Our reasoning was that nature has already done the experiment; you have people who have won the genetic lottery.

‘They are protected from heart attack, and there are no known adverse consequences. So that led us to reason that if we could find a way to replicate this, we could significantly protect people from heart attack.’

He added: ‘The main option for reducing cholesterol is statin drugs, such as Lipitor, but many people taking statin drugs every day still have heart attacks. So there is still a great need for other approaches.’

The findings are reported in the American Heart Association journal Circulation Research

_{The groundbreaking research into the injection was carried out at the Harvard Stem Cell Institute}

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