High Blood cholesterol
Cholesterol levels continue to drop
U.S. health officials say only 13 percent of U.S. adults have high total cholesterol. That may seem incredible in a nation where two-thirds of adults are overweight.
Experts believe it’s largely because so many Americans take cholesterol-lowering drugs, but dropping smoking rates and other factors also contributed.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released the report Tuesday. The numbers come from interviews and blood tests of nearly than 6,000 U.S. adults in 2009 and 2010.
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Monthly shots of Amgen drug slash cholesterol up to 66 percent
Monthly injections of an experimental drug from Amgen Inc slashed levels of cholesterol by up to an additional 66 percent in patients already taking statins, researchers said on Sunday, making it a potential strong rival to a similar drug being developed by Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc.
Amgen and Regeneron are racing to develop medicines that cut cholesterol through a new strategy, by blocking a protein called PCSK9.
In earlier studies, both drugs cut levels of “bad” LDL cholesterol by up to two thirds, although Amgen’s AMG 145 had been tested in healthy volunteers taking no other cholesterol medicines, while Regeneron’s REGN 727 was tested in patients with high cholesterol that also took statins.
Amgen on Sunday reported its first results from an early-stage trial of AMG 145 in patients with high cholesterol also taking statins, and impressive findings were seen in those getting injections every two weeks or every month.
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Study supports soy cholesterol benefits for some
Despite past evidence suggesting that eating soy might only lower cholesterol in those whose bodies are able to convert it to an estrogen-like compound called equol, a new study hints that soy might benefit a wider range of people.
Canadian researchers found that a diet high in soy isoflavones lowered so-called “bad” cholesterol, or LDL, about equally in people who were considered “equol producers” and in those who weren’t. The equol producers, however, maintained their previous levels of “good” HDL cholesterol, while the non-producers’ HDL dropped as well.
Cyril Kendall, a nutrition researcher at the University of Toronto in Canada, and his colleagues used three previous studies to test whether the ability to produce equol from soy products was linked to changes in cholesterol.
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New advance announced in reducing ‘bad’ cholesterol
Scientists from the University of Leicester and the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) have announced a major advance towards developing drugs to tackle dangerous, or ‘bad’, cholesterol in the body.
They have filed two patents for developing targeted drugs that would act as a catalyst for lowering levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol.
Two research papers published by the academics enhance the understanding of the regulation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) or “bad” cholesterol.
LDL, the so-called “bad” cholesterol, is often linked to medical problems like heart disease, stroke and clogged arteries.
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Cholesterol drugs safe, even after a decade of use
Cholesterol-lowering drugs continue to produce benefits without any serious safety problems, such as increased cancer risk, even after more than a decade of use, researchers said Wednesday.
The finding from a large British clinical study following patients for 11 years provides reassurance for people at risk of heart attacks who are typically prescribed such medicines indefinitely.
So-called statin drugs are not without side effects. They can cause nausea, muscle pain, and occasional kidney and liver damage.
But long-term follow-up in the 20,000-patient Heart Protection Study (HPS) found no evidence that statins increased the risk of non-vascular mortality or made patients more likely to develop cancer.
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Green tea shows small effect on cholesterol
Green tea, in a cup or a capsule, may shave off a few points of your “bad” cholesterol, a new research review suggests.
Looking at 20 past clinical trials, researchers found that green tea trimmed 5 to 6 points more from people’s total cholesterol and “bad” LDL cholesterol levels than dummy capsules or other inactive treatments.
The trials tested either green tea itself or capsules containing green-tea compounds called catechins, which are thought to decrease cholesterol absorption in the gut.
In general, green tea in a cup was more consistently effective than capsules. But the benefits overall were fairly small.
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Cleveland Clinic researcher reports that evacetrapib can increase HDL (good) cholesterol 128 percent
Researchers at Cleveland Clinic reported today that administration of a new drug– evacetrapib – can dramatically increase HDL (good) cholesterol, while significantly lowering LDL (bad) cholesterol). At the highest tested dosage, the levels of HDL more than doubled.
The study was presented today by lead investigator Stephen Nicholls MD PhD, Cardiovascular Director of the Cleveland Clinic Coordinating Center for Clinical Research (C5), at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions in Orlando, Fla. The results of this Phase II clinical trial were simultaneously published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
There were initially 1154 patients screened at 70 site locations, with 398 patients randomized for the trial. Evacetrapib (500 mg) produced an HDL increase that ranged from 53.6 percent to 128.8 percent, while decreasing LDL by 13.6 percent to 35.9 percent. When combined with statin therapy, evacetrapib (100mg) increased HDL by 79.9 percent to 94 percent and further decreased LDL.
“In this study, evacetrapib was able to show striking increases in HDL while significantly lowering LDL,” said Dr. Nicholls. “The next step will be a large cardiovascular outcome trial to determine if this drug can reduce cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.”
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Targeting cholesterol to fight deadly brain cancers
Blocking the uptake of large amounts of cholesterol into brain cancer cells could provide a new strategy to battle glioblastoma, one of the most deadly malignancies, researchers at UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have found.
The study, done in cells lines, mouse models and analysis of tissue from brain cancer patients, uncovered a novel mechanism by which the most commonly activated oncogene, the mutated epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), overcomes normal cell regulatory mechanisms to feed large amounts of cholesterol to the brain cancer cells, said Dr. Paul Mischel, a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and molecular and medical pharmacology, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher and senior author of the study.
The study appears Sept. 15 in Cancer Discovery, the newest peer-reviewed journal of the American Association for Cancer Research. It shows that EGFRvIII, common in glioblastoma, promotes the import of cholesterol into cancer cells by up-regulating its cellular receptor, the LDL receptor, promoting rapid tumor growth and survival.
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Astra’s Crestor drug fails to beat Pfizer’s Lipitor
AstraZeneca Plc’s key cholesterol drug Crestor failed to beat Pfizer Inc’s Lipitor in a head-to-head clinical study, limiting any protection the British company will get as its U.S. rival faces competition from cheap generic copies.
Although imaging tests showed patients on Crestor had a greater reduction in the percentage of plaque clogging their heart arteries than those on Lipitor, the difference in this main goal of the study was not statistically significant, AstraZeneca said on Friday.
Crestor did show a significant improvement over Lipitor in a secondary endpoint of the trial, which used ultrasound to measure the condition of coronary arteries in around 1,300 patients.
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Diet alone helps lower bad cholesterol: study
A diet based around plants, nuts and high-fiber grains lowered “bad” cholesterol more than a low-saturated-fat diet that was also vegetarian, researchers reported on Tuesday.
And the drop in low-density lipoprotein, or LDL cholesterol, was big enough that dietary changes could be an alternative to statin medications for many people, they said.
“There’s no question that statins have made a major difference in terms of cardiovascular disease control,” said study author Dr. David Jenkins, from the University of Toronto. But at least for now, he added, “we can only get so far with statins.”
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