Encouraging early clinical data from Alnylam Pharmaceuticals and Intellia Therapeutics presented at the American Heart Association’s (AHA) scientific sessions over the weekend hinted at significant progress in developing novel treatments for transthyretin amyloidosis (ATTR).While Alnylam’s next-generation siRNA therapeutic, nucresiran, demonstrated rapid and durable reduction of serum transthyretin (TTR) in healthy participants, a one-time administration of Intellia’s Regeneron-partnered CRISPR-based gene editing therapy, nexiguran ziclumeran (nex-z), showed disease stabilisation or improvement, alongside TTR lowering in a cohort of ATTR amyloidosis with cardiomyopathy (ATTR-CM).Robust siRNA-induced TTR knockdownIn one ongoing Phase I study, 48 healthy participants were randomised to receive a single ascending dose of nucresiran in the range of 5 mg to 900 mg, or placebo. Results showed that a ≥300-mg nucresiran dose achieved rapid and consistent knockdown of serum TTR, with mean reductions >90% by day 15, peaking >96% by day 29, and sustained through day 180. For the 300-mg dose, TTR reductions remained >70% at day 360. Moreover, nucresiran demonstrated low inter-patient variability in TTR reductions at all doses by day 29. Safety remained favourable across all doses, with no injection site reactions or liver-related signals identified. “Nucresiran utilises our IKARIA platform, which has now demonstrated the potential to achieve durability supportive of biannual or annual dosing, representing a potential new paradigm in the treatment of ATTR amyloidosis,” remarked Pushkal Garg, chief medical officer of Alnylam.Garg noted that the company will unveil Phase III development plans for the drug early next year. Subject to successful late-stage testing and approval, nucresiran would become the third addition to Alnylam’s siRNA portfolio for ATTR, which includes Onpattro (patisiran) and Amvuttra (vutrisiran), approved by the FDA in 2018 and 2022, respectively.CRISPR therapy alters ATTR-CM progressionMeanwhile, Intellia’s Phase I study is investigating nex-z in two cohorts: a 36-participant ATTR-CM arm and a 33-participant ATTR with polyneuropathy (ATTRv-PN) arm. Results for the ATTR-CM arm at the August 21 data-off showed that a single dose of nex-z led to a 90% reduction in serum TTR by month 12, which was sustained in 11 participants reaching the 24-month follow-up. Notably, the treatment also demonstrated disease-modifying effects, with 81%, 94% and 77% of participants achieving significant improvements on cardiac markers such as NT-proBNP, high sensitivity Troponin T and 6-minute walk test, respectively. On the safety front, nex-z was well tolerated, with no instances of treatment-related discontinuation.“The stability or improvement…in multiple markers of cardiac disease progression is remarkable, especially considering the high proportion of patients with cardiomyopathy who had advanced heart failure,” explained John Leonard, chief executive of Intellia. The company also noted positive and consistent trends, reflecting a disease-modifying effect in the ATTRv-PN cohort. Intellia is currently recruiting for the Phase III MAGNITUDE study of nex-z for ATTR-CM and is set to commence the MAGNITUDE-2 study for ATTRv-PN. The latest findings for nex-z could spell good news for the biotech, whose stock tumbled over 20% last month after investor concerns persisted despite positive mid-stage results of another CRISPR-based therapy, NTLA-2002, for hereditary angioedema.