High Cholesterol Difficult To Adapt, Scientists Try To Cut Gens

Medicines and cholesterol check kits (Pexels/Marta Branco)

JAKARTA - High cholesterol levels are one of the causes of heart disease. Cholesterol can usually be controlled by taking cholesterol reduction drugs and changing diet, but some people experience high cholesterol that is difficult to control.

To overcome high cholesterol that is difficult to treat with drugs, scientists are now developing a new way, namely to cut genes. This is done only once.

Quoted from the Cleveland Clinic, on Thursday, November 13, 2025, a trial study was conducted involving 15 high cholesterol patients who did not work with statin drugs (classes of cholesterol reduction).

The team of scientists tested the safety of a new drug provided by CRISPR-Cas9, a type of biological shear that cuts the target gene to enable or disable it.

Preliminary results showed a nearly 50 percent drop in low density lipoproteins or LDLs, which played a major role in heart disease. It was also found an average decline of 55 percent triglycerides, another type of fat in the blood associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease.

"We hope this will be a permanent solution, where younger people with severe illness can undergo one-time gene therapy and experience a lifetime decline in LDL and triglycerides," said study senior author Dr. Steven Nissen.

Although still in the early stages, these findings are interesting because considering the difficulty of taking medication every day, and sometimes three or four drugs to control high cholesterol.

"If you are 20 years old and your cholesterol is very high, maybe it's more reasonable to undergo treatment once that doesn't require you to take pills every day or be injected every two weeks for the next 60 years," explains preventive cardiologist Dr. Ann Marie Navar.

Currently the study will enter phase 2 clinical trials, and will be followed by phase 3 clinical trials. It is designed to show the effect of drugs on a wider population, the results of which are expected to be a qualified solution for those with high cholesterol.

"We are moving very fast because this is a very ebsar medical necessity that has not been met, in which millions of people suffer from this disruption," the study scientists concluded.