Although the epidemiological Framingham Heart Study established an association between higher HDL-cholesterol levels and decreased cardiovascular risk, recent clinical trials with niacin, fibrates and experimental cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) inhibitors have called into question the hypothesis that pharmacological elevation of HDL-cholesterol is always cardioprotective. (medscape.com)
Cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP), also called plasma lipid transfer protein, is a plasma protein that facilitates the transport of cholesteryl esters and triglycerides between the lipoproteins. (wikipedia.org)
Most of the time, however, CETP does a heteroexchange, trading a triglyceride for a cholesteryl ester or a cholesteryl ester for a triglyceride. (wikipedia.org)
Cardiovascular2
As HDL can alleviate atherosclerosis and other cardiovascular diseases, and certain disease states such as the metabolic syndrome feature low HDL, pharmacological inhibition of CETP is being studied as a method of improving HDL levels. (wikipedia.org)
While they confirmed the change in lipid levels, most reported an increase in blood pressure, no change in atherosclerosis, and, in a trial of a combination of torcetrapib and atorvastatin, an increase in cardiovascular events and mortality. (wikipedia.org)
Trials1
A compound related to torcetrapib, Dalcetrapib (investigative name JTT-705/R1658), was also studied, but trials have ceased. (wikipedia.org)