Vaccine against PCSK9: the natural strategy from passive to active immunization for the prevention of atherosclerosis

Chronic diseases in general, and those derived from atherosclerosis in particular, are the major health challenge today in both developed and developing countries (1). In the case of atherosclerosis is a paradox because we know the mechanisms that produce the disease and we have effective tools against those mechanisms, but for different reasons we cannot control in many cases the consequences of arterial plaques. The hopes at the end of the last century on the disappearance of most diseases related to atherosclerosis in the short term have been diluted, and these hopeful expectations do not seem to be fulfilled in the coming years (2,3).