From Lab to Life: Drug Lowers LDL Forever |
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Cardiovascular diseases (including heart attacks and strokes) cause an estimated 19.2 million to 20.5 million deaths globally each year, making it the leading cause of death worldwide. In the US, cardiovascular disease kills nearly 800,000 Americans a year. So, rate heart disease as a worse killer than cancer.
Heart attacks occur when plaque forms on veins and arteries supplying blood to and from the heart. Plaque, in turn, is a result of LDL (‘bad’ cholesterol, or low-density lipoprotein; ‘good’ cholesterol is HDL, high-density lipoprotein).
Writing in the New York Times, May 25, Gina Kolata reports that “A single infusion of an experimental gene-editing drug seemed to reduce........