Overuse of Oral Corticosteroids in Asthma Is Often Underdiagnosed and Inadequately Addressed.

Background: Overuse of oral corticosteroids (OCS) is associated with serious adverse effects. It is currently unknown what proportion of patients with asthma regularly use these drugs, or whether they are optimally treated by specialists to minimize the use of these drugs.

Objective: To investigate (1) the prevalence of patients requiring ≥2 courses or maintenance use of OCS (ie, frequent users), (2) their use of inhaled corticosteroids, and (3) who prescribed their asthma medications.

Stimulation of liver-directed cholesterol flux in mice by novel N-acetylgalactosamine-terminated glycolipids with high affinity for the asialoglycoprotein receptor.

Objective: Interventions that promote liver-directed cholesterol flux can suppress atherosclerosis, as demonstrated for scavenger receptor-BI overexpression in hypercholesterolemic mice. In analogy, we speculate that increasing lipoprotein flux to the liver via the asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPr) may be of therapeutic value in hypercholesterolemia.

Methods And Results: A bifunctional glycolipid (LCO-Tyr-GalNAc3) with a high-nanomolar affinity for the ASGPr (inhibition constant 2.