Lowering cholesterol helps the body’s immune system to fight viral infections faster and more effectively, according to researchers from the UK in the journal PLoS Biology.
Cholesterol is produced by the cells of the human body and is essential for viruses and some bacteria to thrive and grow.
Peter Ghazal and a team at the University of Edinburgh have found that a key immune system hormone that is produced during an infection lowers cholesterol and thus prevents the growth of viruses.
Scientists speculate that the immune system could be boosted with cholesterol-lowering drugs. These types of drugs are already on the market, now you will have to check if they really support the immune system.
If such therapy were successful, the problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics could be reduced and instead of pharmacologically destroying pathogenic microorganisms, the immune system could be mobilized to neutralize them. (PAP)