Tuesday, January 6, 2015
Cholesterol Drug Vytorin Linked to Reduced Heart Attack Risk
Friday, November 1, 2013
New Cholesterol-Lowering Drug, ALN-PCS Shows Early Promise
"Cardiovascular disease remains the leading cause of death of men and women globally and reduction of LDL cholesterol with statin medications has been demonstrated to substantially reduce the risk of first or recurrent cardiovascular events," said Dr. Gregg Fonarow, a professor of cardiology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
Monday, May 13, 2013
Thursday, January 3, 2013
FDA Approves Juxtapid - New Orphan Drug for Rare Cholesterol Disorder
FDA Approves Juxtapid - New Orphan Drug for Rare Cholesterol Disorder
Monday, October 10, 2011
First combination drug to treat type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol receives FDA approval
Friday, August 12, 2011
Bear bile chemical could help keep hearts in rhythm
“These findings are exciting because the treatments we have now are largely ineffective at preventing arrhythmia in patients who develop an abnormal heart rhythm after a heart attack,” said Dr. Julia Gorelik...........
Ref : http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/newsandeventspggrp/imperialcollege/newssummary/news_2-8-2011-10-25-30
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Monday, July 19, 2010
Cholesterol's Other Way out ....
Researchers lead by Mark Brown of Wake Forest University School of Medicine, have come up with an interesting finding that is "there is more than one way to get rid of that cholesterol, which can otherwise lead to atherosclerosis and heart disease".
A model of cholesterol loss first proposed way back in the 1920s suggested the existence of a route that didn't rely on bile. And indeed, studies in dogs unable to get cholesterol into bile showed that the animals actually experienced an increase in cholesterol loss. More recent studies in mice showed a similar thing. Even so, the researchers said that an alternative pathway has largely been ignored. As a result, scientists have made very little progress in defining the molecular pathways and players involved.
Now, Brown and his colleagues offer new evidence that helps support and clarify this alternate path for cholesterol. Researchers report that mice made unable to secrete cholesterol into bile through genetic manipulation or surgery still lose cholesterol through the feces at a normal rate. Macrophages in those animals also continued to take up cholesterol from blood vessels. The researchers believe that alternate path delivers cholesterol from the liver to the intestine directly through the bloodstream.
"The classic view of reverse cholesterol transport involved the delivery of peripheral cholesterol via HDL to the liver for secretion into bile," the researchers wrote. "In parallel, we believe that the liver also plays a gatekeeper role for nonbiliary fecal sterol loss by repackaging peripheral cholesterol into nascent plasma lipoproteins that are destined for subsequent intestinal delivery."
For the purposes of cholesterol-lowering drug discovery, it may prove fruitful to consider those two pathways as "separate and compel", claims the lead researcher.
Researchers claims that the drugs aimed to increase cholesterol loss without relying on bile will have fewer side effects (an excess of cholesterol in bile can lead to gallstones). Let us be optimistic and hope for the best, in the near future...
Ref : http://www.cell.com/cell-metabolism/abstract/S1550-4131%2810%2900186-5
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Flaxseed lowers high cholesterol in men.....
Monday, March 15, 2010
Eprotirome a promising addition to statin therapy ?
Interestingly, the researchers caution that the results don't suggest that eprotirome will or should replace statins, which are the current gold standard for treating high LDL cholesterol.
Saturday, November 14, 2009
Simvastatin prevents progression of Parkinson's Disease ?
![](http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_PiEbciaMtBE/Sv5l8DBcLcI/AAAAAAAAATU/2qhcYkahuPc/s320/Simvastatin.png)
Simvastatin, (marketed under the names Zocor, Simlup, Simcard, Simvacor) is a hypolipidemic drug belonging to the class of pharmaceuticals called "statins". It is used to control hypercholesterolemia and to prevent cardiovascular disease. Simvastatin is a synthetic derivate of a fermentation product of Aspergillus terreus. When I was working with Bangalore based company, the sister company was working on it and now its marketing too.
Recently researchers from the Rush University, have found an interesting fact that Simvastin, may prevent Parkinson's disease from progressing further. The authors have shown that the activity of one protein called p21Ras is increased very early in the midbrain of mice with Parkinson's pathology. Simvastatin enters into the brain and blocks the activity of the p21Ras protein and other associated toxic molecules, and goes on to protect the neurons, normalize neurotransmitter levels, and improves the motor functions in the mice with Parkinson's.
If the researchers are able to replicate these results in Parkinson's patients in the clinical setting, it would be a remarkable advance in the treatment of this devastating neurodegenerative disease. Hope some relief to the sufferers of Parkinson disease....
Ref : http://www.rush.edu/webapps/MEDREL/servlet/NewsRelease?id=1304
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Lovastatin-synthesizing enzyme successfully reconstituted...
![](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_PiEbciaMtBE/SvI4ATeWy3I/AAAAAAAAARU/Tjfmejp4ssU/s320/Lovastatin.png)
Dield-Alder catalysed cyclisation : In vitro formation of a triketide lactone using a genetically-modified protein derived from 6-deoxyerythronolide B synthase has been demonstrated. The stereochemistry of the molecule supports the intriguing idea that an enzyme-catalyzed Diels-Alder reaction may occur during assembly of the polyketide chain. It thus appears that biological Diels-Alder reactions may be triggered by generation of reactive triene systems on an enzyme surface.
Biosynthesis using broadly specific acyltransferase : It has been found that a dedicated acyltransferase, LovD, is encoded in the lovastatin biosynthetic pathway. LovD has a broad substrate specificity towards the acyl carrier, the acyl substrate and the decalin acyl acceptor. It efficiently catalyzes the acyl transfer from coenzyme A thoesters or N-acetylcysteamine (SNAC) thioesters to monacolin J. The biosynthesis of lovastatin is coordinated by two iterative type I polyketide syntheses and numerous accessory enzymes. Nonketide, the intermediate biosynthetic precursor of lovastatin, is assembled by the upstream megasynthase LovB (also known as lovastatin nonaketide synthase), enoylreductase LovC, and CYP450 oxygenases.
Recently more interesting out come from a group of UCLA researchers is that, for the first time thy have successfully reconstituted in the laboratory the enzyme responsible for producing the blockbuster cholesterol-lowering drug lovastatin. As per the claim by the researchers, the lovastatin-synthesizing enzyme is one of the most interesting but least understood of the polyketide synthases, which are found in filamentous fungi and which play a crucial role in the synthesis of "small molecule natural products" — pharmacologically or biologically potent compounds produced by living organisms, many of which are the active ingredients in pharmaceuticals.
This finding is of great significance because commonly used antibiotics, such as tetracycline, are produced by polyketide synthases. Polyketides represent a class of 7,000 known structures, of which more than 20 are commercial drugs, including the immunosuppressant rapamycin, the antibiotic erythromycin and the anticancer drug doxorubicin. In their study studied the enzyme that makes a small-molecule precursor to lovastatin. The real difference about this enzyme, is its extraoridnarily large size in comparison to all other enzymes so for studied. As per the claim by the lead researcher Dr. Yi Tang, "It's one of the largest enzymes ever to be reconstituted in a test tube. It is 10 times the size of most enzymes people study & the enzyme has seven active sites and catalyzes more than 40 different reactions that eventually result in an important precursor to lovastatin. Hope with this remarkable achievement, one can prepare many natural products in the lab in the days to come.
Ref : http://www.newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-engineering-researchers-have-111812.aspx