“This is how we reduce the risks” – breaking latest news

The first three patients are enrolled. Overall, the scientific study will involve 10,000. The ambitious and potentially hopeful goal: to verify the efficacy of the anti-heart attack vaccine, as defined by the father of modern cardiology, Eugene Brauwnwal. Il Monzino in Milan one of the hospitals chosen to test Inclisiran, the new Novartis drug at the center of the Victorion-2P international multicenter study. The medicine works like a vaccine: it is administered twice a year and can reduce the risk of serious cardiovascular events, heart attacks and strokes, by halving the levels of bad cholesterol (LDL-C).

The anti-cholesterol drugs

Piergiuseppe Agostoni, director of the Monzino Department of Critical Cardiology and Rehabilitation, as well as Professor of Cardiovascular Diseases at the State University and principal investigator at Monzino of the Victorion-2 study: known as LDL-C plays a key role in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases and atherosclerotic – he explains -. It has been shown that, by lowering their levels in the blood, a reduction in their incidence and mortality is obtained. An effect that is even more important in those most at risk, such as those who have already experienced a cardiovascular event (heart attack and stroke) in their history. These are precisely the patients the study focuses on. To date, despite having a wide range of anti-cholesterol drugs available (including statins), they are difficult to achieve the same results. Inclirisan the first of a new generation of drugs that, in other clinical trials, has been shown to lower bad cholesterol levels in the blood by 50% both in patients with cerebrovascular disease (Cevd) and in those with polyvascular disease (Pvd).

Gene silencing

The new class of anti-cholesterol drugs acts with a gene silencing mechanism: the molecules interfere in a targeted way on specific targets and deactivate them, silencing them. Inclirisan is particularly promising because silencing a sequence of messenger Rna (mRna) at the level of the hepatocyte (liver cell), through a series of cascade mechanisms, it acts on cholesterol. Hence the parallelism with the vaccines against Sars-CoV-2 which, albeit with a very different mechanism, exploit mRNA, a sort of dictionary capable of translating into practice what is written in the genetic material, explains Massimo Mapelli, member of the staff of the study. al Monzino, together with Elisabetta Salvioni, Fabiana De Martino and Irene Mattavelli. Inclirisan a precision drug: it is injected under the skin, as occurs for example for heparin, and goes directly to a specific target with no other targets in different points of the organism. It has low toxicity, is well tolerated and causes less severe side effects than high dose statins.

The international study

Patients included in the clinical trial are those in secondary prevention, people who have already had a cardio-cerebro-vascular event in the past. For example, the patient first recruited to Monzino had a severe heart attack two months ago and continues, despite a scrupulous intake of the therapy, to have cholesterol values ​​that are too high compared to the threshold value. The researchers explain: We are particularly happy to have started with a female subject because, as is well known, in clinical studies patients are often under-represented, despite having a cardiovascular risk comparable to that of men. At the moment in Italy, in addition to Monzino, five other centers are active or in the process of being activated. The world scientific poles interested in recruiting are 806, of which 531 from outside Europe, 275 in the EU and 20 in Italy.

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