Therapeutic approach in the treatment of dyslipidemia: Novelties and challenges

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Dyslipidemia is a significant risk factor for the development of cardiovascular diseases, and lowering the level of serum lipids leads to a reduction in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The primary therapeutic target is LDL-cholesterol (c). Statin therapy is often not sufficient to achieve LDL-c target values, so it is necessary to combine them with other lipid-lowering drugs. However, after it was noticed that unwanted cardiovascular events occurred despite the achieved target values of LDL-c, attention was paid to the residual cardiovascular risk. Therefore, there was the development of new therapeutic strategies targeting triglyceriderich lipoproteins, lipoprotein (a), and apolipoproteins CIII and B. The results of early phases of randomized clinical studies indicated a significant effect of new drugs on reducing cardiovascular risk. This review article aims to present existing therapeutic options for the treatment of dyslipidemia, as well as new therapeutic agents and future perspectives for the treatment of these disorders.