UNM, NIH researchers develop vaccine to treat high cholesterol

A team of researchers at the University of New Mexico (UNM) and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have developed a vaccine to treat high cholesterol. The vaccine, which targets a molecule called PCSK9, a protein involved in cholesterol metabolism, is a cost-effective alternative to current expensive cholesterol drugs and could lead to a widely applicable vaccine-based approach for controlling high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease. The study demonstrated that the vaccine dramatically lowered cholesterol levels in animals. The study, “A Cholesterol-Lowering VLP Vaccine that Targets PCSK9,” was recently published in the journal Vaccine by Dr. Bryce Chackerian, professor in the Department of Molecular Genetics & Microbiology at UNM, Erin Crossey, an MD/Ph.D. student at UNM, and Drs. Alan Remaley, John Schiller and Marcelo Amar at NIH. Genetic mutations that increase PCSK9 activity are linked to increased levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C—the “bad” cholesterol), which in turn is associated with an increased...