Current and future trends in the lipid lowering therapy

Atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease that affects arterial wall. It leads to wall thickening and its instability. As a result a reduction in lumen diameter and blood flow is observed. This manifests predominantly as the affectation of vascular bed of coronary (myocardial infarction), cerebral, carotid (ischemic stroke) or peripheral arteries (limb amputation). One of the most important factors that accelerate atherosclerosis is hyperlipidemia. According to current guidelines the main attention should be focused on the treatment of hyperlipidemia (beside the prevention, which includes proper diet, physical activity and risk factors avoidance). Major attention is given to LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol (LDL-C) level as primary, and triglyceride level as secondary targets of therapy. As a result of recent clinical findings and continuous research in the field of hypolipidemic drugs it seems practical to review recent data and show potential new pathways that may be useful in the treatment of hyperlipidemia. The review is divided into several parts presenting the widely used and well-known hypolipidemic drugs. In the first part a brief review of contemporary drugs affecting LDL cholesterol is shown. The second part contains information regarding currently available drugs reducing triglycerides level. The third part describes several novel and promising groups of drugs that are still on various steps of clinical development. In the last part drugs affecting HDL (high-density lipoprotein) level were presented.