New annual vaccine could replace statins

 A yearly injection which could replace statins is to be tested on humans, following successful animal studies.

Some eight million Britons currently take daily pills to ward off heart attacks and strokes by reducing their cholesterol levels.

The vaccine reduced cholesterol levels by 53 per cent, atherosclerotic damage to blood vessels by 64 per cent and markers of blood vessel inflammation by 28 per cent. The study in the European Heart Journal found it was possible to immunise genetically modified mice so that they produced antibodies which blocked a key enzyme which stopped “bad” cholesterol from being flushed out.