Word: desmosterol
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Widely touted preparations such as triparanol and nicotinic acid (one of the B vitamins, also called niacin) do lower blood cholesterol, but they have undesirable side effects. Triparanol interferes with the liver's formation of cholesterol, forces it instead to produce a suspicious substance called desmosterol that is chemically related to cholesterol-and may even have the same damaging effect on arteries. Nicotinic acid, to be effective, must be administered in massive doses. The result: flushing, itching, nausea, headaches, changes in the blood...
Triparanol, say Merrell researchers, works by blocking a late stage of cholesterol manufacture in the liver. This means that unusually large amounts of a preceding substance, desmosterol, are left sloshing around in the blood. As Boston's noted heart specialist, Dr. Robert W. Wilkins, has pointed out, nobody knows yet what effect this added desmosterol will have on patients. So far, undesirable reactions have been few and mild (nausea and occasional rashes). Whatever triparanol's ultimate effect on patients' health and survival, the drug gives physicians a chance to find some of the answers that laboratory research...
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