Atherosclerosis, the cause of most age-related heart attacks and strokes, is thought to result from the accumulation of cholesterol and in particular toxic oxysterols in the arterial lining. The quantitatively, and possibly also qualitatively most important oxysterol is 7-ketocholesterol (7KC). Thus, 7KC is justly designated as the major target of medical bioremediation. So far, LysoSENS has focused on discovering microbial enzymes capable of degrading 7KC, and one such enzyme was found. In the meantime, other groups have characterized several further enzymes degrading 7KC in different ways.
