Inhibiting NOGO for hypercholesterolemia

Inhibiting the endoplasmic reticulum protein NOGO could help treat hypercholesterolemia by increasing cholesterol uptake by the liver and preventing the ubiquitination and degradation of the transcription factor NR1H3, which promotes expression of genes involved in cholesterol excretion.

An analysis of published human genome-wide association studies (GWAS) identified NOGO expression as a risk factor for high cholesterol levels. In bioinformatic analysis of the GWAS data, plasma NOGO levels were positively correlated with plasma cholesterol levels and atherosclerotic low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, and negatively correlated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, which removes circulating cholesterol. ...