Does plasma triglyceride-lowering therapy prevent acute pancreatitis in individuals with mild to moderate hypertriglyceridemia?
Mild to moderate hypertriglyceridemia is causally linked to acute pancreatitis, suggesting an unmet need that could potentially be addressed by novel triglyceride-lowering therapies.
Recent observational and genetic studies indicate that mild to moderate hypertriglyceridemia is causally related to increased risk of acute pancreatitis, most likely as a marker of future severe hypertriglyceridemia. Current guidelines do not mention individuals with mild to moderate hypertriglyceridemia, even though newer evidence suggests an unmet medical need. Treatment could include plasma triglyceride-lowering therapy targeting the pathway for lipoprotein lipase as the main triglyceride degrading enzyme in plasma. Angiopoietin-like 3 and apolipoproteinC-III are inhibitors of lipoprotein lipase, and blocking of these 2 inhibitors is showing promising results in relation to marked triglyceride-lowering and could perhaps be used to prevent acute pancreatitis in the future.
Hansen et al. (Wed,) studied this question.
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