Sugar Substance May 'Kill' Levels of Good HDL Cholesterol

It turns out that a sugar substance may be killing your levels of good HDL cholesterol. Scientists have discovered that methylgloxal (MG), can damage "good" HDL cholesterol, which usually removes excess levels of bad cholesterol from the body.

MG is actually formed from glucose in the body. Yet it's 40,000 tomes more reactive than glucose, and it damages arginine residue in HDL at a functionally important site, causing the particle to become unstable.

Low levels of HDL, called High Density Lipoprotein, are closely related to heart disease. Yet MG destabilizes HDL and causes it to lose the properties which protect against heart disease. In fact, HDL damaged by MG is rapidly cleared from the blood, reducing its HDL content. If it's not cleared, the HDL damaged by MG remains in plasma and loses its beneficial function.

"MG damage to HDL is a new and likely important cause of low and dysfunctional HDL, and could count for up to a 10 percent risk of heart disease," said Naila Rabbani, lead researcher of the new study, in a news release. "By understanding how MG damages HDL we can now focus on developing drugs that reduce the concentration of MG in the blood, but it not only be drugs that can help. We could now develop new food supplements that decrease MG by increasing the amount of a protein called glyoxalase 1 or Glo 1, which converts MG to harmless substances."

Currently, there are no drugs that can reverse low levels of HDL. But by discovering how MG damages HDL, scientists now have potential new strategies for reducing MG levels and potentially raising HDL levels. This could help improve the health of patients in the future as new treatments are created.