Cholesteryl Ester Transfer Protein Inhibitors - Future Soon to be REVEALed
Christopher Huggins1, Nicoletta Charolidi1, Gillian W Cockerill1
1Cardiovascular & Cell Sciences, St George's, University of London, UK.
Insights
Reducing cardiovascular risk involves lowering LDL and raising HDL. This review explores the HDL hypothesis and drugs that increase HDL by inhibiting cholesteryl ester transfer proteins (CETPs).
Area of Science:
- Cardiovascular medicine
- Pharmacology
- Lipid metabolism
Background:
- Residual cardiovascular risk remains a significant clinical challenge.
- Current strategies focus on lowering low-density lipoproteins (LDL) and increasing high-density lipoproteins (HDL).
Purpose of the Study:
- To review the HDL hypothesis.
- To summarize clinical outcomes of cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of studies on HDL-raising therapies.
- Analysis of clinical trial data for CETP inhibitors.
Main Results:
- The HDL hypothesis suggests increasing HDL may reduce cardiovascular risk.
- Clinical trials of CETP inhibitors have yielded varied results regarding cardiovascular outcomes.
Conclusions:
- Further research is needed to fully understand the role of HDL in cardiovascular risk reduction.
- The efficacy of CETP inhibitors in reducing residual cardiovascular risk requires further investigation.
Abstract:
Reduction of the remaining residual cardiovascular risk is a clinical unmet need currently being addressed through a combination of further reduction of plasma concentrations of low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) and increasing plasma concentrations of high-density lipoproteins (HDLs). This brief review sets out the so-called HDL hypothesis and summarises the clinical results of the family of drugs, which function to raise plasma HDL concentration through inhibition of cholesteryl ester transfer proteins (CEPT).
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