Gene-editing May Lower Risk of Heart Disease
February 8, 2017| |
A group of researchers in pharmaceutical firm AstaZeneca provided evidence that gene-editing could lessen the risk for heart disease. According to Lorenz Mayr, who leads the research on DNA editing technique, some people have a natural mutation that makes them have very low cholesterol levels. AstraZeneca developed a one-off injection that copies the effect of the mutation. When the injection was tested in mice, a significant decrease in cholesterol levels was observed. The researchers are still conducting more tests to make sure that the procedure will be safe for humans. He projects that if the study continues to provide positive results, human trials might happen in ten years' time. This treatment could be a good alternative to statins, which has negative side effects to some patients.
Read the original article in New Scientist.
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