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Summary

High fructose corn syrup is in many Canadian packaged foods, but it appears on labels as glucose-fructose. This guide explains how this unbound sweetener is processed in the liver, its link to fatty liver disease, and practical ways to spot it on grocery labels.

For Canadians living with high cholesterol, the current treatment landscape is largely defined by one word: daily. A daily statin taken for the rest of your life, periodic lab work to track levels, and the quiet understanding that cardiovascular risk is a condition managed, not solved.

New research published in late August 2026 is raising a genuinely different possibility: what if high cholesterol could be addressed with a single infusion, once, and the effect lasted a lifetime?

Two separate gene-editing trials, both published in the New England Journal of Medicine, are generating significant excitement right now. The results are early, the patient numbers are small, and years of further research lie ahead. But what the science is showing is real and worth understanding.

Why Cholesterol Is Such a Persistent Problem in Canada

First, some context. Over 40% of Canadian adults have unhealthy total cholesterol levels, according to Statistics Canada’s Canadian Health Measures Survey. High LDL cholesterol, the “bad” kind, is responsible for nearly 28% of all cardiovascular deaths in Canada, according to a 2024 analysis in the Canadian Journal of Cardiology.

Statins are effective for most people, but a meaningful subset of patients either can’t tolerate them, have a genetic form of high cholesterol that doesn’t respond adequately to medication, or simply don’t take them consistently over decades of treatment. It’s this population of people with dangerous, medication-resistant LDL levels that these new gene-editing therapies are targeting first.

The Two Trials Making Headlines

CTX310: Editing ANGPTL3 with CRISPR-Cas9

The trial is from Cleveland Clinic, which published one-year results from a Phase 1 first-in-human trial of CTX310, a CRISPR-Cas9-based therapy. The results were presented at the 2026 European Society of Cardiology meeting.

CTX310 works by travelling to the liver and switching off a gene called ANGPTL3, which acts like a dial that controls how much LDL cholesterol and triglycerides circulate in your blood. Turn the dial down, and both drop. Interestingly, some people are naturally born with a lower-functioning version of this gene and tend to have healthier cholesterol levels throughout their lives, which is part of what gave researchers the confidence to target it.

In the 15 patients enrolled in the trial, those who received the highest dose saw:

  • A 52.5% reduction in LDL cholesterol at 12 months
  • A 47.8% reduction in triglycerides at 12 months
  • No serious safety events related to the treatment over the full year

Crucially, there was also a 20% reduction in HDL, the “good” cholesterol, which researchers are continuing to monitor. A new, larger trial with up to 40 patients receiving the highest dose is now underway in the U.S. and Australia.

VERVE-102: Base Editing of PCSK9

The second trial, from Verve Therapeutics (a subsidiary of Eli Lilly), takes a different approach. VERVE-102 uses base editing, a more precise form of gene editing than CRISPR-Cas9 to switch off the PCSK9 gene in liver cells. PCSK9 is a protein that normally prevents the body from clearing LDL cholesterol from the blood. Turning off the gene that produces it allows the liver to remove far more LDL on its own.

The PCSK9 target isn’t new. Injectable PCSK9 inhibitor drugs (such as evolocumab and alirocumab) already exist and work well, but they require injections every two to four weeks, indefinitely. The gene-editing approach aims to make that intervention permanent with a single infusion.

In a Phase 1 study of 35 adults with inherited high cholesterol or premature coronary artery disease, the highest dose of VERVE-102 reduced PCSK9 protein levels by 88% and LDL cholesterol by up to 62%. Some participants were followed for up to 18 months and the effect appeared to persist throughout. There were no serious side effects linked to the highest dose. A Phase 2 study is expected to begin later this year.

Why This Might Work Permanently

One of the most compelling aspects of the VERVE-102 approach, explained in reporting from Time magazine, is the biology of how it persists. The therapy targets liver cells, which turn over every 200 to 300 days. Once those cells have been edited, they produce new cells carrying the same genetic change. That means the effect isn’t dependent on the original treated cells surviving; it’s self-perpetuating, theoretically over a lifetime.

This is what makes gene editing a fundamentally different category of treatment than a drug that needs to be taken repeatedly. The edited gene doesn’t wear off.

What Still Needs to Happen

Both trials are in their earliest stages. Phase 1 trials are primarily designed to assess safety, not to establish clinical benefit at scale. The patient numbers are small; 15 in the CTX310 trial, 35 in the VERVE-102 study.  populations were selected because they had medication-resistant conditions that were not adequately managed by existing therapies.

Before either treatment could become available to the general public, both would need to progress through Phase 2 and Phase 3 trials involving hundreds or thousands of patients, followed by regulatory approval, a process that typically takes many years. Health Canada would need to independently review and authorize any such therapy before it could be used in Canada.

The HDL reduction seen in the CTX310 trial also warrants ongoing attention. A 20% drop in “good cholesterol” alongside the LDL reduction is something researchers are watching carefully, since lower HDL levels are also associated with cardiovascular risk.

The Bigger Picture

What makes these trials significant isn’t that they’ve solved high cholesterol. They haven’t, not yet. It’s that they’ve demonstrated, in humans for the first time, that a one-time gene edit can durably alter how the liver handles cholesterol, with no serious safety signals after a year of follow-up.

For the millions of Canadians managing cardiovascular risk with daily medication, that is a meaningful scientific milestone. The question of whether it translates into a broadly accessible, approved therapy is one that only the next several years of clinical research will answer.

In the meantime, if you have concerns about your cholesterol, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada recommends speaking with your doctor about your LDL targets and whether current treatment options are working for you.

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The information provided on TheHealthInsider.ca is for educational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. TheHealthInsider.ca advises consulting a medical professional or healthcare provider when seeking medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment. To read about our editorial review process click here.

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