Intravenous doses of a synthetic component of "good" cholesterol reduced artery disease in just six weeks in a small study with startlingly big implications for treating the nation's No. 1 killer.
"The concept is sort of liquid Drano for the coronary arteries," said Dr. Steven Nissen, a Cleveland Clinic cardiologist who led the study.
Larger and longer studies need to be done to determine if the experimental treatment will translate into fewer deaths, but the early results are promising, said Dr. Daniel Rader, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
The treatment used a laboratory-produced version of an unusually effective form of HDL, the good cholesterol that helps protect against heart disease by removing plaque, or fatty buildups, from the bloodstream.
"This is clearly on the level of a breakthrough that will have far-reaching implications," pointing the way toward a rapid treatment for fatty buildups, said Dr. Bryan Brewer, chief of molecular diseases at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.
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The study was funded by Esperion Therapeutics Inc. of Ann Arbor, Michigan, a small biotechnology company that makes the product.
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