New functions of cholesterol binding proteins

Cholesterol is an essential component of eukaryotic cell membranes with an important role in signal transduction. Although cholesterol can operate to auto-regulate its own disposal via gene transcriptional mechanisms, glucose also binds to the same cholesterol-binding transcription factors to regulate gene expression. Different sterol binding proteins bind different lipids to regulate both lipid homeostasis and antigen presentation. This mini-review examines the recently reported new functions of cholesterol binding proteins in cholesterol homeostasis, function and trafficking, and explores the molecular mechanisms whereby sterol sensors respond to glucose and other ligands to regulate diverse cellular functions in metabolism. Several new models are proposed from studies on a range of sterol binding proteins including Insig, SCAP, LXR, HMG-CoAR, NPC1 and NPC2.