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Updated: May 26, 2026

Differential Effects of Lipid-lowering Drugs in Modulating Morphology of Cholesterol Particles
Published on: November 10, 2017
Effects of the PPAR-δ agonist MBX-8025 on atherogenic dyslipidemia
Yun-Jung Choi1, Brian K Roberts, Xueyan Wang
1Metabolex, Inc., 3876 Bay Center Place, Hayward, CA 94545, United States.
Objective:
Determine the effects of treatment with a selective PPAR-δ agonist±statin on plasma lipoprotein subfractions in dyslipidemic individuals.
Methods:
Ion mobility analysis was used to measure plasma concentrations of subfractions of the full spectrum of lipoprotein particles in 166 overweight or obese dyslipidemic individuals treated with the PPAR-δ agonist MBX-8025 (50 and 100 mg/d)±atorvastatin (20 mg/d) in an 8-week randomized parallel arm double blind placebo controlled trial.
Results:
MBX-8025 at both doses resulted in reductions of small plus very small LDL particles and increased levels of large LDL, with a concomitant reduction in large VLDL, and an increase in LDL peak diameter. This translated to reversal of the small dense LDL phenotype (LDL pattern B) in ∼90% of the participants. Modest increases in HDL particles were confined to the smaller HDL fractions. Atorvastatin monotherapy resulted in reductions in particles across the VLDL-IDL-LDL spectrum, with a significantly smaller reduction in small and very small LDL vs. MBX-8025 100 mg/d (-24.5±5.3% vs. -47.8±4.9%), and, in combination with MBX-8025, a reversal of the increase in large LDL.
Conclusion:
PPAR-δ and statin therapies have complementary effects in improving lipoprotein subfractions associated with atherogenic dyslipidemia.
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