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VIDEO: Genetic variants offer insight into effects of lifelong elevation, decrease in lipids
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CHICAGO — Kevin C. Maki, PhD, CLS, discusses the influence of genetic variants on lipoprotein lipid levels and CVD risk.
Maki, chief science officer at Midwest Center for Metabolic and Cardiovascular Research, gave a presentation on the topic at the National Lipid Association Scientific Sessions.
Maki said that assessment of the genetic variants linked to HDL, LDL and/or very-low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (VLDL) offers an "interesting" way to observe the effect of lifelong exposure to elevated or lower lipoprotein lipids. He cited study results indicating that variants that increased HDL without influencing other lipid levels did not appear to influence CVD risk, and said that these findings have called the causality of the relationship between HDL and CVD into question. He also noted that variants that reduce LDL have been linked to reduced LDL risk, and that patients with these variants have a larger risk reduction than that observed in statin trials.
Recent findings have also indicated that genetic variants that cause elevated VLDL are associated with increased CVD risk, to a larger extent than that associated with increased LDL. "This raises the possibility that VLDL cholesterol, or at least something highly correlated with it, may be even more atherogenic than LDL cholesterol," Maki said, adding that this may help to explain why non-HDL cholesterol is more predictive of CVD risk than LDL alone.