Patent ID: 7291590

Claim:
A method for treating atherosclerosis or regressing or decreasing formation of arterial atherosclerotic lesions in a subject comprising administering to the subject a pharmaceutical composition comprising an isolated peptide or mimetic thereof comprising ADQAANEWGRSGKDPNHFR (SEQ ID NO:12) or a peptide variant with one or more conservative amino acid substitutions relative to SEQ ID NO:12 and at least 74% sequence identity to SEQ ID NO:12 calculated over the length of SEQ ID NO:12, notwithstanding any additional amino acids of the variant peptide, which may extend beyond the length of SEQ ID NO:12, and a pharmaceutically acceptable vehicle, wherein said isolated peptide or mimetic thereof has less than 27 amino acid residues, and wherein said isolated peptide or mimetic thereof enhances cholesterol ester hydrolase activity so that atherosclerosis is treated or formation of arterial atherosclerotic lesions is regressed or decreased in the subject.