Lipoprotein Metabolism

The Lipoprotein Metabolism Laboratory, led by Dr. Alan T. Remaley, seeks to better understand lipoprotein metabolism and to translate new insights gained from basic biochemistry, cell biology, and transgenic animal models into much-needed clinical advances in the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease.

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Alan Remaley

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Group photo of lab members.
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“It takes a village to do a good science” is a motto of Dr. Alan Remaley’s team of the Lipoprotein Metabolism Laboratory. “One of the best things about the NIH is we get to work with the best people from all over the world” according to Dr. Remaley.

Cover image of Science Translational Medicine. Illustration shows a simulation snapshot of D6PV peptide interacting with a trilayer of lipids.
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Cover page of the vol. 12, no. 528 issue of Science Translational Medicine journal that highlights a research article of Wolska et al. entitled “A dual apolipoprotein C-II mimetic-apolipoprotein C-III antagonist peptide lowers plasma triglycerides.” published in the journal in Jan 29, 2020, doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.aaw7905.

Illustration shows a simulation snapshot of D6PV peptide interacting with a trilayer of lipids.

Our patents United States Patent and Trademark Office USPTO
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Our team, thanks to the great and professional work of the NHLBI Office of Technology Transfer and Development, has been patenting their discoveries with USPTO.

Our clinical trials NIH U.S. National Library of Medicine ClinicalTrials.gov
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Our team, lead by Dr. Marcelo Amar, runs two clinical trials on potential treatments for preventing and reducing cardiovascular diseases risk. First trial is a Fish Oil study and the second one is a Fx-5A peptide study. Please check the details and eligibility criteria in the links provided.

Dr. Alan Remaley and Maureen Sampson pointing at a blackboard displaying the Sampson Equation
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Dr. Alan Remaley and Maureen Sampson, a research Medical Technologist in the NIH Department of Laboratory Medicine, have shared their equation calculator for low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), called Sampson-NIH equation for LDL-C. It has been published in JAMA Cardiology and is available for free to researchers and clinicians to improve testing of LDL-C in patients at risk for heart diseases.

Other equations of the team are available at https://figshare.com/authors/Maureen_Sampson/9315995 and include Sampson-NIH equations for small dense LDL-C, phenotype algorithm, and enhanced VLDL-C equations.

“Through an estimated atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk score called eASCVD, we developed an adjunctive tool for the primary prevention of ASCVD that can also be used as a decision aid for statin therapy.” Anna Wolska, M.S., Ph.D., F.A.H.A. Staff Scientist, Laboratory of Lipoprotein Metabolism; NIH-NHLBI logo; Red Background. Headshot of Dr. Anna Wolska
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Determining atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) risk is crucial for its prevention. M. Sampson and Dr. A. Wolska and colleagues have recently published a paper in Clinical Chemistry journal on a new estimated ASCVD risk score called eASCVD that can be automatically computed by clinical laboratories for all patients with a fasting standard lipid panel to improve the primary prevention of ASCVD. This research was featured by the NHLBI on their website in an article Calculating risks for heart disease | NHLBI, NIH Access to the free eASCVD calculator is available at https://figshare.com/articles/software/Sampson_eASCVD_equation_calculator/14222852

Clinical Trials and Studies

Effect of Dietary Omega-7 Palmitoleic Acid-Rich Oil on Lipoprotein Metabolism and Satiety in Adults

Recruiting
Adult, Older Adult
All Genders
Accepting Healthy Volunteers
Are you interested in the heart-healthy benefits of omega-7 fatty acids? One of the most common types is palmitoleic acid. Researchers want to learn more about the potential benefits of these fatty acids, which can be found in certain fish and nuts. Participants must be at least 18 years old without known cardiovascular disease. This study is located at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

An Intravenous, Open-Label, Dose Escalation Study to Evaluate the Safety, Tolerability, Pharmacokinetics and Pharmacodynamics of Fx-5A in Healthy Volunteers

Recruiting
Adult, Older Adult
All Genders
Accepting Healthy Volunteers
Are you a healthy adult who is interested in helping researchers learn about heart disease? This study is testing a new medicine called Fx-5A that may be used to treat inflammation and various heart and blood vessel diseases. Participants will have an infusion of Fx-5A while researchers monitor the electrical activity of their heart using a non-invasive, painless heart test called an electrocardiogram (EKG). To participate in this study, you must not be pregnant or have any heart-related conditions. This study is located at the NIH Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland.

Featured Publications

Transgelin: a new gene involved in LDL endocytosis identified by a genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 screen.

Authors: Lucero D, Dikilitas O, Mendelson MM, Aligabi Z, Islam P, Neufeld EB, Bansal AT, Freeman LA, Vaisman B, Tang J, Combs CA, Li Y, Voros S, Kullo IJ, Remaley AT
J Lipid Res 2022 Jan 01;63(1):
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Structure of apolipoprotein B100 bound tothe low-density lipoprotein receptor

Authors: Reimund, M., Dearborn, A.D., Graziano, G. et al.
Nature 2024 Dec 11:
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A Dual Apolipoprotein C-II Mimetic-Apolipoprotein C-III Antagonist Peptide Lowers Plasma Triglycerides.

Authors: Wolska A, Lo L, Sviridov DO, Pourmousa M, Pryor M, Ghosh SS, Kakkar R, Davidson M, Wilson S, Pastor RW, Goldberg IJ, Basu D, Drake SK, Cougnoux A, Wu MJ, Neher SB, Freeman LA, Tang J, Amar M, Devalaraja M, Remaley AT.
Sci Transl Med. 2020 Jan 20;12(528):
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A New Equation for Calculation of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol in Patients With Normolipidemia and/or Hypertriglyceridemia.

Authors: Sampson M, Ling C, Sun Q, Harb R, Ashmaig M, Warnick R, Sethi A, Fleming JK, Otvos JD, Meeusen JW, Delaney SR, Jaffe AS, Shamburek R, Amar M, Remaley AT
JAMA Cardiol 2020 May 01;5(5):540-548
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Cell-free high-density lipoprotein-specific phospholipid efflux assay predicts incident cardiovascular disease

Authors: Masaki Sato, Edward B Neufeld, Martin P Playford, Yu Lei, Alexander V Sorokin, Angel M Aponte, Lita A Freeman, Scott M Gordon, Amit K Dey, Kianoush Jeiran, Masato Hamasaki, Maureen L Sampson, Robert D Shamburek, Jingrong Tang, Marcus Y Chen, Kazuhiko Kota
J Clin Invest. 2023 Jul 20:
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Meet the Team

Alan Remaley

Alan Remaley, M.D., Ph.D.

Senior Investigator

Alan Remaley received his B.S. in biochemistry and chemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, and a M.D. and Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987. In 1990, he completed a residency in clinical pathology at the University of Pennsylvania and became board-certified in clinical pathology in 1992. He joined the NIH in 1990 as a medical staff fellow and did a postdoctoral fellowship on lipoprotein metabolism in the Molecular Disease Branch at the NHLBI. In 1995, Dr. Remaley became a senior staff member of the Department of Laboratory Medicine at the NIH, where he is currently the Director of the Immunoassay and Special Chemistry section. In 2007, he became the Section Chief of the Lipoprotein Metabolism laboratory in the Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Branch of the NHLBI. Dr. Remaley has received numerous honors and awards over his career and is a Captain in the United States Public Health Service. He has published more than 150 peer-reviewed articles and is on the editorial board of several journals, including Journal of Lipid Research, Journal of Pediatric Biochemistry, Atherosclerosis, and Clinical Chemistry. Dr. Remaley is a member of the American Association of Clinical Chemistry (AACC), College of American Pathologists, American Heart Association, and National Lipid Association.

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