Patent ID: 6858585

Claim:
A method for promoting production of apolipoprotein E, which comprises administering to a patient in need thereof one or more cyclic depsipeptide of the formula (1) as an active ingredient: wherein: R is a straight or branched alkyl group of 5 to 20 carbon atoms, or a straight or branched alkoxymethyl group of 5-15 carbon atoms; A, B, D, E and F are each independently a residue of an amino acid selected from the group consisting of alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine, serine, threonine, lysine, hydroxylysine, arginine, cysteine, methionine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, tryptophan, histidine, proline, 4-hydroxyproline, piperizine-4-carboxylic acid, homoproline, octahydroindole-2-carboxylic acid, norvaline, norleucine, α-t-butylglycine, cyclohexylglycine, azetidine-2-carboxylic acid, 3-(3-pyridyl)alanine, (3-N-methyl)piperizylalanine, 3-(2-naphthyl)alanine,βcyclohexylalanine, β-t-butylalanine, 9-anthracenylalanine, α-methylalanine, 2-aminobutanoic acid, and an N—(C 1 -C 4 ) alkyl derivative of any of the above foregoing amino acid residues; W and Z are independently a residue of an amino acid selected from the group consisting of aspartic acid, asparagine, glutamic acid and glutamine; and m and n are independently 0 or 1, wherein any free amino group, any free carboxyl group or any free ω-carbamido group of said amino acid residue in A, B, D, E, F, W and Z is optionally protected by a protecting group used in peptide chemistry. further wherein when said amino acid residue in A, B, D, E, F, W and Z is a residue of lysine, hydroxylysine, glutamic acid or aspartic acid, the amino group or carboxyl group capable of being bound to an adjacent amino acid by peptide linkage is optionally located at either the α-position or the ω-position, or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof.