Neoscope
APR 3, 5:30 PM EDT
BY MAGGIE HARRISON DUPRÉ
The experimental biotech startup Verve Therapeutics has paused the first phase of a buzzy human gene-editing trial due to strange side effects in a patient, according to a report from Bloomberg.
The trial in question — dubbed the “Heart-1” trial — is the company’s attempt to use gene editing to reduce heart-attack-causing cholesterol in patients with familial hypercholesterolemia, a passed-down genetic disorder that causes buildups of LDL cholesterol in individuals. LDL is the bad kind of cholesterol, and familial hypercholesterolemia drastically heightens patients’ risk of early heart attack and can lower life expectancy overall. Verve’s proposed solution: inject “VERVE-101,” a serum designed to lower fatty LDL molecules by genetically altering the cholesterol-managing PCSK9 gene, into trial participants’ livers.