Editing Genes to Make Up for Your Choices
Gene Editing to Reduce Cholesterol: Necessary next step, or avoiding what is necessary?
A recent article in MIT Technology Review entitled “Edits to a cholesterol gene could stop the biggest killer on earth” describes the first ever patient undergoing a new gene editing procedure to lower cholesterol. The experiment is part of a clinical trial by the US biotechnology company Verve Therapeutics, and involves the gene-editing tool CRISPR, injected into the patient in order to modify a single letter of DNA in the cells that are involved in cholesterol metabolism in the body.
Some people are born with genetic mutations that can lead to exceptionally high cholesterol levels which are difficult to control and significantly increase risk for cardiovascular disease, potentially leading to heart attacks even in teenage years, and for them, if deemed safe, such technology may indeed be appropriate. However, plans for its eventual use clearly do not appear as though they are going to stop there.
According to Verve CEO Sekar Kathiresan, “If this works and is safe, this is the answer to heart attack—this is the cure.”
If use of this therapy does extend beyond rare cases of genetic mutation, will this be an example of human ingenuity being put to good use, or will it instead be another classic example of technology being used to side step the impact of problems we have created for ourselves, and solutions we are unwilling to undertake?
A simpler way to think of it is to ask- If this technology were truly necessary as the “cure” for heart attacks for everyone with high cholesterol, how did the human race make it this far?
Appropriate and thorough implementation of dietary and lifestyle choices has repeatedly been shown to significantly reduce, and in some cases eliminate, risk for heart attacks, even when genetic mutations may be at play. In some cases, they have this impact even while a person is simultaneously able to lower or even eliminate related medications. While it is not yet known what potential side effects may occur from this gene editing approach to cholesterol reduction, the side effects of nutritional and lifestyle interventions are already known to include reduced risk of cancer, dementia, diabetes, autoimmune disease, and more.
The “downside” of such choices, of course, is that they take effort, sustained motivation, and a willingness to change. Perhaps the next gene editing therapy can be used to treat Gene Editing to Reduce Cholesterol: Necessary next step, or avoiding what is necessary?