High levels of cholesterol can lead to narrowed arteries and heart disease. But the fatty substance also contributes to vital bodily functions such as making cell membranes and hormones.
Widely used cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins block the good effects as well as the bad.
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Now scientists at the University of Edinburgh have learned that the body's immune system has its own way of keeping cholesterol in check.
Cholesterol levels are suppressed as part of the process that fights off viral infections.
Drugs that mimic this natural mechanism could be as effective as statins while avoiding their side effects, researchers believe.
"Controlling cholesterol is vital for our health and drugs can play a part in this," said Dr Steven Watterson, one of the researchers from the University of Edinburgh.
"Developing treatments that mimic the body's natural methods of managing cholesterol could be more targeted and have few side effects compared with conventional treatments."
The study, partly funded by the Wellcome Trust, is published in the journal Biochimie.
