A new strategy to cure disease in a single day, and forever: epigenetic silencing

A team of Italian researchers has reached a major scientific milestone, heralding a revolution in the field of medicine. The scientists have succeeded in silencing a gene associated with high cholesterol levels, without the need to modify DNA. In the experiment, which was conducted on mice, the effects of the gene silencing persisted for the entire year that the experiment lasted — a period equivalent to half an average human life. These results suggest that it may be possible to solve chronic health problems, permanently, and in a single day of treatment. The study was published this Wednesday in the journal Nature, a leading reference in the world of science.

DNA is like a book, with some 3 billion chemical letters, that provides instructions for the functioning of every cell. This immense text is divided into pages — the genes — which contain specific recipes for making the proteins necessary for life: the collagen in cartilage, the hemoglobin in blood, the antibodies that fight pathogens. One of these genes, PCSK9, contains guidelines for producing a protein associated with...