"In addition to the biological significance, the findings have important clinical implications for cholesterol control," he said.

Cholesterol-lowering statins--taken by an estimated 10 million people each day to protect against coronary artery disease and reduce the incidence of heart attacks--limit cholesterol synthesis by inhibiting reductase function, he said. As a result, cells take up more cholesterol from the bloodstream, lowering its concentration there.

However, inhibition of reductase function by statins also limits the availability of regulatory intermediates that govern reductase activity, contributing to a major increase in active reductase that becomes progressively harder to control, according to the researchers. The new findings suggest that drugs that mimic lanosterol--given along with statins--may improve the drugs' long-term ability to lower cholesterol by stimulating reductase degradation.

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Contact: Heidi Hardman
hhardman@cell.com
1-617-397-2979
Cell Press
15-Mar-2005