Scientists found a way to combat cholesterol problems
The holidays are finally over. We’ve enjoyed in all the things that they bring, especially the food. However, all the food that we’ve eaten boosted our blood cholesterol levels all the way to the top. These things seem inevitable, because we, humans, just can’t control ourselves when we eat. We never think of the consequences…
However, scientists from the Northwestern University have come up with a solution — synthetic high-density lipoprotein (HDL), the “good” cholesterol. It could help combat chronically high cholesterol levels and the deadly heart disease that often results. The synthetic HDL is 18 nanometers in diameter, a size similar to natural HDL.
Scientists developed a synthetic HDL and showed that their nanoparticle version is capable of irreversibly binding cholesterol. It’s completely based on gold nanoparticles.
“We have designed and built a cholesterol sponge. The synthetic HDL features the basics of what a great cholesterol drug should be,” said Chad A. Mirkin, one of the researchers. “Drugs that lower the bad cholesterol, LDL, are available, and you can lower LDL through your diet, but it is difficult to raise the good cholesterol, HDL. I’ve taken niacin to try and raise my HDL, but the side effects are bad so I stopped. We are hopeful that our synthetic HDL will one day help fill this gap in useful therapeutics.”
They started building the synthetic HDL based on a gold nanoparticle as the core. Then they layered on a lipid that attaches to the gold surface, then another lipid and last a protein, called APOA1, the main protein component of naturally occurring HDL.
The details are published in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.
Source: northwestern.edu
