- A new study is deepening researchers’ understanding of how dietary cholesterol enters the bloodstream.
- Researchers say these findings could pave the way for new cholesterol medications.
- Experts say that new drug development based on these findings will require time and significant testing before becoming available to the public.
Scientists at the University of California Los Angeles say they have identified a new step in how dietary cholesterol is absorbed into the body, potentially paving the way for new therapies for high cholesterol.
They have published these findings in the journal Science.
Before cholesterol makes its way into our bloodstream, it first has to be processed from the food we eat by cells on the inner walls of our intestines. This mechanism helps determine a person’s overall blood cholesterol levels, which can have large downstream impacts on cardiovascular and metabolic health over time.
In particular, scientists have been concerned with the process by which free cholesterol is captured and drawn into the cell by an enzyme called NPC1L1, then moves through a cell network known as the endoplasmic reticulum, and finally is converted and prepared to enter into the bloodstream by an enzyme in a process called esterification.
Up until now, doctors have had an incomplete picture of this process.
“How cholesterol that enters the cell through NPC1L1 reaches the endoplasmic reticulum for esterification and regulation of cholesterol synthesis has been a longstanding mystery,” Dr. Peter Tontonoz, a lead study author and a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at UCLA, said in a press release.
The research team identified a protein class known as Asters — particularly Aster-B and Aster-C — that are responsible for the middle step of getting cholesterol from the exterior of the cell into the endoplasmic reticulum.
“The process is very complex and many steps are unknown, but this study has shed some light on the process,” said Dr….
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