An Italian group of researchers has used zinc finger editing to silence the PCSK9 gene and improve blood cholesterol levels in mice by applying a single dose of their modifier. The epigenetic-based method could be an alternative to genome editing.
The largest genetic analysis of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) carried out to date has identified almost 100 new risk variants linked to the disorder. The study also highlighted a possible therapeutic target for this pathology that, at the moment, has no treatment. AAA affects 4% of people over 65 years of age in the U.S. and causes 41,000 deaths per year. The incidence is three to four times higher in men than in women.
Hasten Biopharmaceutical Co. Ltd. has licensed greater China rights to Lib Therapeutics Inc.’s next-generation PCSK9 inhibitor lerodalcibep in a deal worth up to $325 million.
Heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HeFH) patients treated with lerodalcibep achieved a 58.6% reduction in LDL-cholesterol at week 24 and a 65% reduction at the mean of weeks 22 and 24 in the phase III trial Liberate-HeFH. The developer, Cincinnati-based Lib Therapeutics Inc., was founded in 2015 when it licensed the technology from Bristol Myers Squibb Co. but is just now emerging from stealth.
“Show us your work” is basically the message the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit sent to the Patent Trial and Appeal Board (PTAB) when it vacated a decision by the board in an ex parte review of rejected patent claims submitted by Theripion Inc. While the Aug. 10 Federal Circuit opinion that remanded the case is nonprecedential, the appellate court made it clear that the PTAB must explain its reasoning for whatever conclusions it reaches.
The role of the enzyme γ-secretase in neuronal cholesterol metabolism could have a beneficial effect on the synapse that has not yet been explored in Alzheimer’s disease (AD). On Aug. 4, 2023, scientists at Stanford University School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute published a study online in Neuron that linked cholesterol levels in the brain to synaptic dysfunction in AD.
Nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) is the most severe form of nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, where in addition to the accumulation of fat in the liver, there is also chronic inflammation and hepatocyte injury. With no therapy approved yet, selective thyroid hormone receptor-β (THR-β) agonism has yielded good results in ongoing clinical development.
Esperion Therapeutics Inc.’s full results from the phase III outcomes trial called Cholesterol Lowering via Bempedoic Acid, an ACL-Inhibiting Regimen, known by the rough acronym CLEAR, inspired excitement in the mainstream media worldwide but not on Wall Street, as numbers from the experiment fell short of what some wanted. Though the findings proved unmistakably positive, shares of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based Esperion (NASDAQ:ESPR) dropped almost 20% or $1.27 to close March 6 at $5.08.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
The combination of two sequencing techniques has unveiled features of a subpopulation of cells that could be producing plaques in atherosclerosis. This process is associated with an autoimmune component driven by CD4+ T cells, according to a study from researchers at Leiden University.
“I think that we can clearly say now that atherosclerosis is a very clear autoimmune component. It is a multifactorial disease, a combination of genes, and lifestyle, but also inflammation and the immune system,” Ilze Bot and Bram Slütter, associate professors at the Division of Biotherapeutics of Leiden University, told BioWorld.
