The most significant advance in clinical cardiology and lipidology this decade is the emergence, and availability, of proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin type 9 (PCSK9) monoclonal antibody (mAb) therapies. Not since statin therapies became available nearly three decades ago has there been as much excitement and hope for the efficacious management of dyslipidemia and reduction of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) mAbs (alirocumab and evolocumab) were marketed in the United States, Europe, and other countries. In a wide range of high risk patients, with and without ASCVD, these PCSK9 mAbs, as once or twice monthly subcutaneous injections, potently reduce LDL-C 50-65% beyond levels achieved by maximally tolerated statin therapy; approximately one-third of patients achieve LDL-C levels <25 mg/dL. In the US, PCSK9 mAb therapy has current limited indications for persons with ASCVD or familial hypercholesterolemia requiring additional LDL-C reduction beyond maximally tolerated statin therapy. The first of the ASCVD outcomes-driven trials, the FOURIER trial has very recently shown in over 27,000 subjects randomized to evolocumab or placebo on top of moderate or high intensity statin therapy, a 15% risk reduction in the primary and 20% reduction in the secondary outcome over 2.2 years of treatment. Also of interest in patients with coronary artery disease on statin therapies, once-monthly evolocumab treatment, for only 76 weeks, resulted in significant plaque atheroma volume regression, as assessed by serial intravascular ultrasonography imaging, in approximately two-thirds of treated patients. Finally, in development is a highly durable RNA interference therapeutic inhibitor of PCSK9 synthesis which from a single dosage has been shown to maintain, for 6 months, a 75% reduction in PCSK9 levels and 50% reductions in LDL-C levels.The potential role of this vaccination-like product, as well as currently available PCSK9 mAb therapies, represents significant therapeutic advances to address ASCVD residual risk.
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