28 Aug Familial Hypercholesterolemia: “Junk” RNA May Facilitate Gene Therapy
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Sallam
Tamer Sallam, MD PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Co-Director UCLA Center for Lipid Management
Lauren B. Leichtman and Arthur E. Levine CDF Investigator
Assistant Director, STAR Program
Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, California 90095-1679
MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?
Response: This study is extension of our previous work published in Nature showing that a gene we named LeXis (Liver expressed LXR induced sequence) plays an important role in controlling cholesterol levels. What is unique about LeXis is that it belongs to a group of newly recognized mediators known as long noncoding RNAs. These fascinating factors were largely thought to be unimportant and in fact referred to as “junk DNA” prior the human genome project but multiple lines of evidence suggest that they can be critical players in health and in disease.
In this study we tested whether we can use LeXis “gene therapy” to lower cholesterol and heart disease risk. This type of approach is currently approved or in testing for about 80 human diseases.
Our finding was that a single injection of LeXis compared with control significantly reduced heart disease burden in mouse subjects. Although the effect size was moderate we specifically used a model that mimics a very challenging to treat human condition known as familial hypercholesterolemia..Familial hypercholesterolemia is one of the most common genetic disorders affecting up to 2 million Americans and characterized by 20 fold fold increase risk of early heart attacks and often suboptimal response to currently available treatments.
MedicalResearch.com: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?
Response: Better understanding of long noncoding RNAs has the potential to open up entirely new gateways for us to tackle many diseases including heart disease. Although the effects of long noncoding RNA can be compensated which makes it difficult to exploit therapeutically, if examined in the right context they may hold promising potential.
MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?
Response: Whether treatment targeting LeXis or other components of that pathway in humans would have any effect on cholesterol levels or heart disease development remains unknown and will be a focus of future studies along with validation of our initial observations in other preclinical models.
For more information please see
http://newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/gene-therapy-using-junk-dna-could-lower-risk-for-heart-disease
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Peter Tontonoz, Xiaohui Wu, Marius Jones, Zhengyi Zhang, David Salisbury, Tamer Sallamhttps://doi.org/10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.117.029002
Circulation. 2017;136:776-778
Originally published August 21, 2017
Note: Content is Not intended as medical advice. Please consult your health care provider regarding your specific medical condition and questions.
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Last Updated on August 28, 2017 by Marie Benz MD FAAD