TUESDAY, Dec. 18 (HealthDay News) -- A new kind of drug designed tolower levels of "bad" low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol and reduceheart disease risk has proved safe and effective in a phase II clinicaltrial, researchers report.
Elevated LDL levels increase the risk of heart attack and stroke.
The small study of 24 moderately overweight people with high LDL levelsfound that the drug (KB2115) helped reduced LDL levels by as much as 40percent. The findings confirm earlier tests in animals. The drug was welltolerated, and there were no detectable effects on the heart.
All the American and Swedish researchers involved in the study have aproprietary interest in Swedish pharmaceutical company Karo Bio AB, whichdeveloped KB2115. The research was conducted at the Karolinska Institute,Stockholm, and the University of California, San Francisco.
The drug is designed to mimic the action of thyroid hormone andaccelerates the hormone's natural ability to rid the body of LDL. Since itis unrelated in structure or action to widely-used cholesterol loweringstatin drugs (such as Lipitor, Pravachol and Zocor), KB2115 may offer analternative for patients who can't tolerate statins, according to thestudy authors. It may also be possible to use KB2115 to further decreasecholesterol levels in patients taking statins.
The results were published online this week in the journalProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment