A hidden biological pathway may explain why high-cholesterol diets slowly sabotage the body’s own defenses. UC San Diego researchers have identified the mechanism, published in Nature, and found that blocking it dramatically lowered LDL cholesterol in mice.
Cholesterol research (Credits: Shutterstock/ScienceDaily)
Heart disease linked to high cholesterol remains the leading cause of death worldwide. Doctors have more treatments than ever, but many patients still cannot reach safe cholesterol levels — and others struggle with side effects from existing medications.
How high-cholesterol diets disable the body’s LDL defenses
The liver clears cholesterol from the blood using surface structures called LDL receptors, which act like docking stations capturing LDL for processing. The more receptors, the more cholesterol the liver can remove — a principle behind statins and PCSK9 inhibitors.
Using experiments in mice and human cells, the team — led by senior author Alan Saltiel, PhD, professor of medicine at UC San Diego and director of the UC San Diego/UCLA Diabetes Research Center — found a previously unrecognized process that gradually reduces the number of LDL receptors, making it harder for the body to keep blood cholesterol under control.
“We’ve known for a long time that a high-cholesterol diet reduces the liver’s ability to clear cholesterol from the blood, but we didn’t fully understand why,” Saltiel said. “This new discovery explains a critical piece of that puzzle.”
An experimental drug that already passed a human safety trial
The most promising part: researchers identified an experimental drug targeting this pathway that has already undergone early safety testing in humans, the university reports. That could speed up development of a new cholesterol treatment, since safety — usually the longest hurdle — is already established.
The findings are early-stage science reported from a study in Nature, and the drug is experimental, not an approved treatment.
Also Read: ATEEZ’s Hongjoong Sits Out “Music Core” Due to Health Concerns, KQ Entertainment Confirms
Source: ScienceDaily — read the full story there.
