IRP research reveals new insights about how 'bad' cholesterol works in the body

Wednesday, December 11, 2024

Findings could pave the way for more personalized treatments for cardiovascular disease

National Institute of Health (NIH) scientists have made a significant breakthrough in understanding how "bad" cholesterol, known as low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol or LDL-C, builds up in the body. The researchers were able to show for the first time how the main structural protein of LDL binds to its receptor – a process that starts the clearing of LDL from the blood – and what happens when that process gets impaired.

The findings, published in Nature, further the understanding of how LDL contributes to heart disease, the world’s leading cause of death, and could open the door to personalizing LDL-lowering treatments like statins to make them even more effective.

“LDL is one of the main drivers of cardiovascular disease which kills one person every 33 seconds, so if you want to understand your enemy, you want to know what it looks like,” said Alan Remaley, M.D., Ph.D., co-senior author on the study who runs the Lipoprotein Metabolism Laboratory at NIH’s National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.