New Clues to HDL’s Benefits Revealed
- Tracy Hampton, PhD
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
While “good” high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol is thought to ward off heart attacks, researchers suspect that there may be both beneficial and dysfunctional types of HDL. This theory was bolstered in December when Pfizer Inc halted a phase 3 clinical trial of torcetrapib, an HDL-boosting agent, after the drug was found to cause an increase in deaths and heart problems in patients.
“HDL is the next big therapeutic frontier [for cardiovascular disease], but the torcetrapib trial is telling us that it may not be enough to just raise HDL cholesterol,” said Jay Heinecke, MD, from the University of Washington in Seattle.
Researchers have identified components of high-density lipoproteins that help prevent artery-occluding atherosclerotic plaque from breaking apart and causing myocardial infarction. (Photo credit: Biophoto Associates/www.sciencesource.com)
To determine which properties of HDL are cardioprotective, Heinecke and colleagues have broken down the lipoprotein into pieces. A close examination of the …
