Searching for a successful HDL-based treatment strategy.

Despite strong evidence that HDL-cholesterol levels predict atherosclerotic events in a population, attempts at using and HDL-based treatment strategy have not yet been successful. Most of the efforts to date have focused on raising plasma HDL-cholesterol levels. This brief review focuses on a different strategy, which is based on the use of 18-amino acid apoA-I-mimetic peptides. The story of these peptides spans decades and illustrates the remarkable complexity of HDL-based treatment strategies, but suggests that such a strategy may still be successful.