Grant: Operating Grant

Cholesterol is a type of fat that is essential to the function of the cells and organs in the human body. Accumulation of this excess cholesterol in artery walls, however leads to heart attacks and strokes. The removal of this excess cholesterol is a major function of the protective fraction of cholesterol-containing particles in blood called high density lipoprotein or HDL. Currently there are not very effective ways of increasing the amount of HDL in blood to increase this and other protective functions of HDL. One of the best ways to achieve this is to turn on new HDL formation. We discovered a modification of HDL proteins that turns on the cell transporter that makes new HDL particles. The goals of this research are to understand how these modified proteins turn on this transporter, what the structure of these modified proteins is, and whether short fragments of these modified proteins also turn on this HDL-making pathway so that they could be used as new treatments to raise HDL. The ultimate goal of the research is develop a novel treatment that increased HDL production to reduce the personal and economic burdens of heart disease and stroke.