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Microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibition–friend or foe?

Nature Clinical Practice Cardiovascular Medicine volume 5, pages 506–508 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

This article sets out the clinical context of the research presented by Samaha et al. in an accompanying article in this issue. Hyperlipidemia is a common and important risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Current lipid-lowering therapies, particularly statins, lead to substantial decreases in cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality, but use has been limited by safety or efficacy issues. The way has, therefore, been paved for the pharmaceutical development and clinical investigation of new lipid-lowering therapies. The clinical trial by Samaha et al. examines the safety and efficacy of microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibition for lowering lipids. Joy and Hegele explore the difficulties of translating microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibition into clinical practice because of the trade-off between efficacy and potential adverse effects. They also stress the need for outcome studies, rather than biochemical or surrogate studies, as the final arbiter for the clinical use of this new treatment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Jacob J Wolfe Distinguished Medical Research Chair, the Edith Schulich Vinet Canada Research Chair (Tier I) in Human Genetics, a Career Investigator award from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (CI-5710), and operating grants from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (MOP-13430, MOP-39533, MOP-39833), the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (PRG-5967, NA-6059, T-6018), the Ontario Research Fund and by Genome Canada through the Ontario Genomics Institute.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. T Joy is a research fellow, and RA Hegele is the Director of the Blackburn Cardiovascular Genetics Laboratory, at The Robarts Research Institute, in London, ON, Canada.,

    Tisha R Joy & Robert A Hegele

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  1. Tisha R Joy
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  2. Robert A Hegele
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Correspondence to Robert A Hegele.

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Joy, T., Hegele, R. Microsomal triglyceride transfer protein inhibition–friend or foe?. Nat Rev Cardiol 5, 506–508 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncpcardio1251

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