Multiple Roles of 25-Hydroxycholesterol in Lipid Metabolism, Antivirus Process, Inflammatory Response, and Cell Survival

Table 1

The receptors and binding proteins of 25-HC.

Receptors	Role	Functions
Liver X receptors (LXRα, LXRβ)	LXRα agonist; LXRβ agonist	1. Negatively regulates cholesterol biosynthesis and promotes cholesterol efflux [27, 28, 34, 35]; 2. Inflammatory regulation [35]; 3. Promotes pyroptosis [83]
Retinoic-related orphan receptors (RORα, RORβ, RORγ)	RORα ligand; RORγ agonist	Th17 cell differentiation [30, 36–39]
Estrogen receptor α (ERα)	Agonist	Mediates gene expression changes and growth responses in breast and ovarian cancer cells [31]
G protein-coupled receptor 183 (GPR183, EBI2)	Agonist	Directs immune cell migration [32, 33]
Proteins binding oxysterols
Insulin-induced gene protein (INSIG)	Ligand	Maintains SREBP in the ER and inhibits cholesterol biosynthesis [41]
Niemann-Pick protein C1 (NPC1)	Ligand	Cholesterol clearance in lysosomal [42–44]
Oxysterol-binding protein family 8 (ORP8)	Ligand	1. Cholesterol efflux in macrophages [46]; 2. Induces apoptosis of the hepatoma cell lines [47]
Steroidogenic acute regulatory-related lipid transfer (START) domain proteins	Ligand	Maintenance of cellular cholesterol homeostasis [48–50]