Cutting cholesterol levels could help protect against infections, British researchers report today.
The findings could mean that cholesterol-lowering drugs, such as statins, could bolster the immune system.
In the journal PLoS Biology, Professor Peter Ghazal and colleagues from Edinburgh University, UK, explain their work. "Currently, little is known about the crosstalk between the body’s immune and metabolic systems that occurs after viral infection," they write.
Using mouse cells, the team found that viral infections trigger a protein called interferon that lowers cholesterol levels. This is because viruses and certain bacteria need cholesterol to grow, so limiting cholesterol production acts against the virus.
They say this work uncovers a previously unappreciated molecular link that protects against infection.
"We observed this effect with a range of other viruses, and in each case it leads to a notable drop in the metabolites involved in the cholesterol pathway," they report.
This may explain the reduced cholesterol levels seen in patients given interferon, they write, and pave the way for a new set of drugs to protect against infections.
Professor Ghazal added: "Drugs currently exist to lower cholesterol levels, but the next step would be to see if such drugs would also work to help bolster our immune systems."
These drugs would also avoid the problem of antibiotic resistance.
"We posit the principal of using metabolic modifiers, i.e. drugs that target metabolic pathways, of protective innate immunity as holding future promise for developing host-directed anti-viral therapies," the team writes.
"Overall, this study supports the original concept of selectively targeting host pathways as an efficacious anti-infective strategy," they conclude.
Blanc, M. et al. Host Defense against Viral Infection Involves Interferon Mediated Down-Regulation of Sterol Biosynthesis. PLoS Biol 9(3): e1000598.
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