Researchers make synthetic HDL cholesterol: study

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. researchers have developed a synthetic form of good cholesterol known as HDL they hope will be able to keep levels of bad cholesterol in check.

The compound, which has a tiny core of gold, is manufactured using nanotechnology, and its developers think it has the potential to rid the body of excess bad cholesterol.

"The idea is you take this and effectively just urinate it out," said Chad Mirkin of Northwestern University in Chicago, whose study was published on Monday in the Journal of the American Chemical Society.

Mirkin, director of Northwestern's International Institute for Nanotechnology, said the molecule mirrors the size and structure of high-density lipoprotein, or HDL.

It is comprised of a carefully sized gold particle swathed in fat molecules known as lipids and capped off with a protein layer. It is designed to attract and trap low-density lipoprotein, or LDL, the bad kind of cholesterol that can build up in arteries and cause heart attacks and strokes.

Powerful drugs known as statins can help lower LDL levels, but they do little to raise levels of protective HDL cholesterol.

"The hope is this will be a material that doesn't have side effects, that allows you to do what the statins don't do. That is raise the HDL level, which might be able reverse a lot of the damage and plaques that are already there," Mirkin said.

Current drugs that raise natural levels of HDL, such as niacin, cause unpleasant side effects such as flushing. And while many drug companies are working to develop better HDL-raising drugs, few have succeeded.