E-cigarettes more effective than counseling alone for smoking cessation

Smokers who received smoking cessation counseling and used electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) containing nicotine were more than twice as likely to successfully quit smoking compared to those who received counseling but did not use e-cigarettes, in a clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC).…

Alirocumab substantially reduces cholesterol in adult patients with HoFH

The cholesterol drug alirocumab reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol by 35.6% compared to placebo in adult patients with homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (HoFH), according to a phase three clinical trial presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). HoFH is a genetic condition that causes dangerously high…

Evinacumab cuts cholesterol levels by half in patients with HoFH

The investigational drug evinacumab reduced low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol to near-normal levels among patients with a rare cholesterol disorder, meeting the primary endpoint in the first randomized placebo-controlled trial of the drug, which is being presented at the American College of Cardiology’s Annual Scientific Session Together with World Congress of Cardiology (ACC.20/WCC). Homozygous familial hypercholesterolemia…

Biological ‘atlas’ shows dual personality for immune cells that cause Type 1 diabetes

Immunologists at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital have created a database that identifies gene-regulatory mechanisms in immune cells that facilitate Type 1 diabetes. The findings were published today in Nature Immunology. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the immune system attacks the body’s own cells. In Type 1 diabetes, immune cells called…