The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

"Vaccination" against heart attack? A dose of cholesterol-lowering drugs costs just under 3,000 euros

2022-11-23T19:44:16.534Z


"Vaccination" against heart attack? New drug lowers cholesterol levels by up to 50 percent Created: 11/23/2022, 8:30 p.m By: Juliane Gutmann mRNA technology is not only used in corona vaccines. The drug Inclisiran against high cholesterol also works according to the principle. Twice a year an injection with the active ingredient Inclisiran should lower cholesterol levels by up to 50 percent, a


"Vaccination" against heart attack?

New drug lowers cholesterol levels by up to 50 percent

Created: 11/23/2022, 8:30 p.m

By: Juliane Gutmann

mRNA technology is not only used in corona vaccines.

The drug Inclisiran against high cholesterol also works according to the principle.

Twice a year an injection with the active ingredient Inclisiran should lower cholesterol levels by up to 50 percent, according to the

medical journal

.

This study result is a breakthrough mainly because high cholesterol levels increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases such as heart attacks and strokes.

The most common cause of death in Germany is cardiovascular disease, which is why the need for therapy is particularly great here.

A relatively new therapeutic approach is treatment with the cholesterol-lowering drug inclisiran.

According to the German Society for Combating Lipid Metabolism Disorders and Their Sequelae DGFF (Lipid-Liga), Inclisiran was launched in Germany on February 1, 2021 and is the first and only small interfering RNA (ribonucleic acid)-based therapy for patients with hypercholesterolemia ( dyslipidemia leading to high blood cholesterol levels which can increase the risk of cardiovascular disease) or mixed dyslipidaemia (dyslipidaemia in which the composition of the blood fats is abnormal).

Too much saturated fatty acids and trans fatty acids, too few polyunsaturated fatty acids and too little dietary fiber: the wrong diet that is too high in fat is a major risk factor for elevated cholesterol levels.

© Michael Bihlmayer/Imago

Don't miss anything: You can find everything to do with health and well-being in the regular health newsletter from our partner Merkur.de.

Inclisiran lowers LDL cholesterol – long-term

Inclisiran only has to be administered intravenously using a syringe twice a year in order to lower cholesterol levels and thus the risk of a heart attack.

According to the medical journal

, large-scale studies had

shown that inclisiran can keep the harmful LDL cholesterol in the body low for over six months.

LDL is the abbreviation for "low density lipoprotein", which transports the cholesterol produced by the liver to the body's cells.

Excessively high LDL cholesterol levels can indicate an increased risk of arteriosclerosis, bile stasis or urinary poisoning, as the

internists

inform on the Internet.

Therapy with steroid hormones or luteal hormones can also increase the LDL value, it is said.

Cholesterol survey

A long-term reduction in the LDL level by 50 to 55 percent is possible with inclisiran, according to the

medical journal

Professor Wolfgang Koenig, senior physician at the German Heart Center in Munich, who has analyzed the study situation on inclisiran in more detail.

The

picture

even describes the active ingredient as the "penicillin of the 21st century".

also read

Peeing in the shower: family doctor says "urinating in the shower is no problem"

"How was your day?": 10 questions parents should ask their child instead

But this has its price: a dose of Inclisiran costs almost 3,000 euros, as the cardiologist Professor Oliver Weingärtner explains in an interview with the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.

And there is another catch: So far, the preparation has only been approved for hardship cases.

For example, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians in Baden-Württemberg informs that the lipid-lowering drug Inclisiran can only be prescribed in exceptional cases.

With a few exceptions, the reserve drug cannot be prescribed at the expense of statutory health insurance.

Doctors should not prescribe Inclisiran if this results in additional costs compared to therapy with other lipid-lowering drugs such as statins.

However, there are exceptions: for patients with hypercholesterolemia or mixed dyslipidemia.  

Injection against heart attack: mRNA therapy against high cholesterol levels

The therapy with Inclisiran works via the so-called RNA interference.

Like

Cardiologie.org

as a joint offer from the German Society of Cardiology - Heart and Circulatory Research eV (DGK), the Federal Association of Cardiologists in Practice (BNK) eV and Springer Medizin Verlag GmbH, Inclisiran is a chemically modified ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecule.

The substance has a lipid-lowering effect because, as so-called small interfering RNA (siRNA), it inhibits the intracellular synthesis of PCSK9, according to the heart expert portal.

The activity of the protein PCSK9 promotes an increased level of LDL in the blood.

Injecting inclisiran affects the mRNA (messenger ribonucleic acid) for PCSK9 in such a way that "the gene for PCSK9 synthesis is effectively switched off," according to

Kardiologie.org

.

Caution: This is how you recognize a heart attack immediately

View photo gallery

The mRNA therapy with the "lipid-lowering drug inclisiran does not resemble a vaccine in terms of its mechanism of action, but it does resemble a vaccine in terms of its form of application: the substance only has to be injected subcutaneously every six months to achieve a sustained strong reduction in LDL cholesterol in the blood," This is the conclusion of the editor-in-chief of

kardiologie.org

, Peter Overbeck.

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2022-11-23

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.