Single dose of siRNA molecule offers protection against heart attack and stroke in high-risk patients

I was never a high risk patient so this would do absolutely no good for me.  You'll have to ask your doctor is this might apply to you. 

Single dose of siRNA molecule offers protection against heart attack and stroke in high-risk patients

Even a single dose of a specific ribonucleic acid molecule, known as a small interfering RNA (siRNA), offers patients at high risk of cardiovascular disease long-lasting protection against high LDL cholesterol - one of the main risk factors for heart attack and stroke. This is the result of a clinical study that researchers from Charité and Imperial College London have published as leading authors in the current edition of New England Journal of Medicine.
As a component of cell walls and a building block of numerous hormones, cholesterol plays an important role in the cell's lipid metabolism. However, too much LDL cholesterol in the blood results in an increased risk of atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries) and problems such as heart attack and stroke. Patients suffering from a genetic disorder which causes very high levels of LDL cholesterol are at a particularly high risk. In these patients, a protein known as PCSK9 (proprotein convertase subtilisin/kexin type 9) prevents the liver from removing LDL cholesterol from the blood.

In their study, Prof. Ulf Landmesser, Head of Charité's Department of Cardiology (Campus Benjamin Franklin), and Prof. Kausik Ray from Imperial College London, used the principle of RNA interference. The process, which was discovered a few years ago, uses RNA molecules (small interfering RNA) to inhibit the synthesis of harmful proteins. When double-stranded siRNA is introduced into a cell, it will bind to a molecule known as the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC complex). This allows the process to be used in a targeted manner to silence specific genes.
In their study, the researchers investigated how effective and efficient a specific siRNA was at targeting the PCSK9 protein. A total of 501 high-risk patients with high LDL cholesterol levels received varying subcutaneous doses of either inclisiran or placebo. Results showed that inclisiran led to a significant reduction in levels of both the protein and LDL cholesterol, with LDL cholesterol levels being reduced by up to 41.9 percent after a single dose, and up to 52.6 percent after two doses.
"It was particularly interesting to see just how sustained the effect of treatment was, with the effect of a single dose remaining apparent for a duration of over nine months," explains Prof. Ulf Landmesser. He adds: "The next step will be to further develop this treatment by conducting a large clinical outcome trial. We are hoping to test what might become a new type of therapy for the prevention of heart attack and stroke in high-risk patients."

Source:

https://www.charite.de/en/service/press_reports/artikel/detail/molecular_therapy_set_to_protect_at_risk_patients_against_heart_attack_and_stroke/

MTfp-­siRNA reduces blood vessel infarct, improves overall brain activity in ischemic stroke model

How many decades is this going to take to get it proven in humans? I'm betting 100 years because we have shit for brains in our stroke associations with NO strategy and no way to solve any of the problems in stroke. 

MTfp-­siRNA reduces blood vessel infarct, improves overall brain activity in ischemic stroke model

BIOASIS TECHNOLOGIES INC. (OTCQX:BIOAF; TSX.V:BTI), a pioneering biopharmaceutical company focused on overcoming the limitations of therapeutic drug delivery across the blood-­‐brain barrier (BBB), announces the results from an animal ischemic stroke model performed at the National Research Council Canada with the biOasis Transcend carrier peptide, MTfp and siRNA (MTfp-­‐siRNA). Two key therapeutic effects were shown with MTfp-­‐siRNA; A high degree of reduction of the area of blood vessel infarct and improvement of overall brain activity as determined by neurological scoring.
On July 25th, 2014, biOasis announced that its newly discovered carrier peptide (MTfp), part of the biOasis Transcend family of carrier technologies, effectively delivered siRNA across the BBB and into brain cells. The company also announced that it achieved the goal of silencing the expression of a selected target gene in the brain by approximately 50%. This study prompted the company to move to a model of disease where therapeutic effects could be measured.
Ischemic stroke is the most common type of stroke in humans and an animal model that mimics stroke was chosen to establish the effectiveness of MTfp-­‐siRNA treatment administered immediately prior to induction of ischemic stroke.
Key Findings of Ischemic Stroke Model Treated with MTfp-­‐siRNA:
(1) The area of infarct (damage) was highly reduced in the animals treated with MTfp-­‐siRNA. Brain images revealed significantly less stroke damage in brain sections from animals treated with the MTfp-­‐siRNA when compared to the same brain regions in the control animals. The brain section images may be viewed below. The images show that there is more stroke damage (white areas) in the five sections from control animals (Left Panel) when compared to the same brain regions in the animals with stroke treated with the MTfp-­‐siRNA (Right Panel).

(2) Thirty-­‐minutes after induction of stroke, the neurological scores of the animals treated with the MTfp-­‐siRNA were significantly better than those of control animals. At 24 hours, controls animals demonstrated a slight improvement in neurological scores while MTfp-­‐siRNA treated animals showed a vast improvement and exhibited nearly normal neurological scores.
“The results clearly demonstrate that in an established animal model of stroke, therapeutic levels of siRNA that down-­‐regulate the expression of a key pathogenic gene were successfully delivered by MTfp to the brain, resulting in a significant reduction of infarct damage and improvement of neurological scores associated with healthy brain function,” said Dr. Wilfred Jefferies, biOasis Founding Scientist.