We all know that high cholesterol levels are extremely bad for us, potentially leading to heart disease, strokes or heart attacks. There are a variety of statin medications on the market which can help patients lower their cholesterol levels, as well as food stuffs like Benecol and Flora which are promoted as leading to a healthier heart. However, what is less commonly known is that there are in fact two types of cholesterol found in the bloodstream, one of which is actually beneficial to our cardiovascular health – and scientists at Northwestern University in the US believe they have worked out how to artificially manufacturer it.
The ‘good’ cholesterol is called HDL (or high-density lipoprotein) and is believed to lower the risk of heart disease, by removing cholesterol from fatty buildup in the arteries and taking it to the liver, where it is then broken down and passed out of the body. It protects against disease and if you have low HDL, this puts you more at risk of a cardiovascular episode. The Northwestern researchers’ synthetic version is based on gold nanoparticles; they take the gold and then attach two lipids (fat molecules) and the protein that is the key component of HDL to the particle. They discovered that gold is an excellent material for their purposes, as it is non-toxic and its shape can be easily changed as necessary.
The team are very hopeful that their discovery will lead to the development further down the line of a new HDL boosting medication. There are already a few medications that fulfil this function, but they are not widely used and can have side effects. Shad Thaxton, assistant professor of Urology at Northwestern, who co-lead the study, is excited about the future potential of the research: “Our hope is that, with further development, our synthetic form of HDL could be used to increase HDL levels and promote better health."