Millions of people around the world use medicines based on statins to lower their blood cholesterol, but new research from the University of Gothenburg, shows that statins may also be effective in the treatment of cancer.
Statins lower cholesterol by blocking certain enzymes involved in our metabolism. However, they have also been shown to affect other important lipids in the body, such as the lipids that help proteins to attach to the cell membrane (known as lipid modification). Because many of the proteins that are lipid-modified cause cancer, there are now hopes that it will be possible to use statins in the treatment of cancer.
One of the leading brands of statins, Simvastatin
The Gothenburg researchers’ studies show that statins can have a dramatic inhibitory effect on growth and development. As the researchers managed to identify the enzyme involved, they can also explain how the effect arises at molecular level.
“Our results support the idea that statins can be used in more ways than just to lower cholesterol,” says Pilon. “Not least that they can prevent the growth of cancer cells caused by lipid-modified proteins, but also that they can be effective in the treatment of diabetes and neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s.”
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November 9th, 2009 at 6:29 am
New health warnings are to be issued over popular cholesterol-lowering drugs after evidence that thousands of users suffer side effects such as depression and sexual problems.
More than six million adults who are prescribed statins by their GPs will be told about five new ‘ undesirable effects’ in leaflets issued with packets of the drugs.
These are sleep disturbances, memory loss, sexual dysfunction, depression and a rare lung disease that can kill if left untreated.
But some doctors have criticised delays by the Government’s drug safety watchdog, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency.
The MHRA signalled the need for updated warnings in February last year but disagreements about the wording have held up the changes.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-1226238/Side-effects-alert-statin-users-drug-linked-depression-memory-loss.html
January 15th, 2010 at 3:27 am
Statins could cut the chances of developing cataracts by nearly 40 per cent, research shows.
Men aged between 45 and 54 who took the cholesterol-lowering pills virtually every day reduced their risk of cataracts later in life by 38 per cent compared with those who took them rarely, according to a study in the journal Annals of Epidemiology.
In women of the same age, the risk was reduced by about 18 per cent.
But those aged 75 or more when they started on statins saw very little reduction in risk.
Scientists who carried out the study of 180,000 people at Tel Aviv University in Israel said there was evidence that statins protect the eyes by reducing inflammation and protecting cells against a harmful process called oxidation.
About 200,000 people are year are treated for cataracts in Britain, a figure that is expected to rise significantly due to the ageing population.