Research progress of liver X receptor agonists

Liver X receptor (LXR), a member of the superfamily of nuclear receptors, plays an important role in the activation of transcription factors involved in cholesterol metabolism, glucose homeostasis inflammation and lipogenesis.  It is shown that LXR agnoists have the potentiality to be used as drugs for the prevention and treatment of atherosclerosis, which is its best investigated therapeutic indication.  There are many compounds being studied in preclinical evaluation and biological assay.  This paper will review briefly the LXR agonists in recent years.