IT COULD one day be possible to lower your blood cholesterol level by taking
a drug that stops it being absorbed by the gut.
Samuel Wright and his colleagues at Merck Research Laboratories in New Jersey
have found that, in hamsters, a single molecule of a sterol glycoside can block
the absorption of up to 500 molecules of cholesterol. This shows that intestinal
cells use a specific transporter to take in cholesterol (Biochimica et
Biophysica Acta, vol 1436, p 232 and p 243). Because most cholesterol is
made in our livers, eating less cholesterol doesn鈥檛 lower blood levels much. But
cholesterol from the liver is released into the gut in bile. So blocking the
transporter could lower blood cholesterol levels by between 15 and 20 per cent,
Wright says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a very inviting target.鈥�