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| |  Low Cholesterol Transfer Protein Activity Associated With Heart Disease Risk BOSTON -- December 16, 2009 -- Although seen as a potential heart disease therapy, raising high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels by inhibiting activity of a transfer protein may not be effective, according to a study published in the December 15 issue of the journal Circulation. Researchers found an association between low plasma cholesterol ester transfer protein (CETP) activity and increased risk of heart disease in the Framingham Heart Study population. “Our findings differ from studies suggesting that inhibiting CETP activity would bring a cardiovascular benefit by raising HDL…” said senior author Jose Ordovas, PhD, Nutritional Genomics Laboratory, USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging, and Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts. “In a clinical trial testing that hypothesis, heart disease unexpectedly advanced in a surprising number of participants.” Based on those results, Dr. Ordovas and colleagues examined CETP activity in 1,978 Caucasian men and women with a mean age of 51 years and no history of heart disease. They analysed 15 to 18 years of study visits looking for first cardiac events including heart failure, myocardial infarction, angina, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease. “By the end of the follow-up period, 320 men and women had experienced their first cardiac event,” said Dr. Ordovas. “Participants with low CETP activity were 18% more likely to develop cardiovascular disease than people with CETP activity above the median.” A more in-depth investigation of models eliminated the possibility that age, sex, and common risk factors such as smoking, weight, diabetes, and cholesterol levels interfered with the findings. The authors stress the preliminary nature of their data. “The relationship between CETP activity and HDL levels carries many unknowns, including the influence of genetics,” said Dr. Ordovas, pointing to studies of some Japanese families. “Despite very low levels of CETP activities, they still have high heart disease risk. Other genetic studies question the inhibition of CETP, but there is not enough research to discount the possibility that raising HDL levels through CETP inhibitors may reduce the risk of heart disease.”
SOURCE: Tufts University School of Nutrition
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