cholesterol Tag

28 Mar

Posted at 17:30h in Author Interviews, Duke, Lipids, NEJM, Statins
Michael J. Pencina, PhD Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Director of Biostatistics Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Michael J. Pencina, PhD Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Director of Biostatistics Duke Clinical Research Institute Durham, NC 27710 MedicalResearch.com: What motivated your research? Dr. Pencina: After the new guidelines were issued last November, we were intrigued by the change in treatment philosophy from that based on cholesterol levels (used by the “old guidelines” known as NCEP ATPIII) to one based on 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease (used by the new AHA-ACC guidelines).  We were curious what the practical consequences of this shift would be. Furthermore, the media quoted a lot of experts making educated guesses on the impact.  We realized that this question can be answered much more precisely based on the NHANES data.

19 Mar

Posted at 18:13h in Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Lipids, University of Michigan
dr_cristen_j_willerMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cristen J. Willer, PhD Assistant Professor Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Dept of Internal Medicine Dept of Human GeneticsDept of Computational Medicine and Bioinformatics University of Michigan Ann Arbor, MI 48109-5618 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Willer: We wanted to find new genes related to heart disease, so we examined the DNA of approximately 10,000 Norwegian individuals and found 10 genes that are important regulators of blood cholesterol levels. Nine of these were well known to be related to lipids, but one gene was new.  It turned out to be in a region we'd previously noticed to be related to cholesterol, but it was a big region and we hadn't been able to pinpoint the gene yet.  Using this new approach, focusing on DNA differences that result in slightly different proteins in people, we zeroed in on the gene.  We then altered this gene in mice, and saw the predicted changes in cholesterol levels in mice.

02 Jan

Posted at 18:59h in Alzheimer's - Dementia, Author Interviews, JAMA, Lipids
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Bruce Reed PhD Professor of Neurology, Associate Director UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Davis, CA 95616 Dr. Bruce Reed PhD Professor of Neurology, Associate Director UC Davis Alzheimer's Disease Center Davis, CA 95616 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Reed: We found that high LDL cholesterol and low HDL cholesterol in blood  were both associated with higher amyloid deposition in the brain.  This is potentially very important because the deposition of amyloid seems to be a critical step that kicks off a whole chain of events that eventually lead to Alzheimer's disease.  It is widely believed (although not proven) that if this deposition of amyloid could be blocked that we could greatly decrease the incidence of Alzheimer's.  The connection to cholesterol is exciting because we know a fair amount about how to change cholesterol levels.  A great deal more research needs to be done, but this does suggest a potential new path toward trying to prevent AD.