Statins a revised appraisal for potential additional future treatment indications 英文参考文献.docVIP

Weissert Arthritis Research Therapy 2012,14:121 /content/14/3/121 EDITORIAL Statins: a revised appraisal for potential additional future treatment indications Robert Weissert* See related research by Vandebriel et al., /content/14/2/R90 limiting enzyme that converts HMG-CoA to mevalonate, Abstract a precursor of sterols, including cholesterol. Beside statins’well established positive inuence on atherosclerotic vascular disease caused by hypercholesterolemia through selective competitive inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase, additional eects on the immune system have been described for them. These observations have raised great hopes for additional future treatment indications, including rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Ten years of searching for such novel treatment indications have not led to breakthroughs and future eorts must be seen with skepticism. Statins are indicated in patients with signi?cantly increased risk for atherosclerotic vascular disease due to hypercholesterolemia for reduction of mortality from coronary heart disease, non-fatal myocardial infarction and stroke and reduction of coronary and non-coronary revascularization procedures. Furthermore, statins are indicated in patients with various forms of hyper lipid- emia. While statins have a clear and well established positive e?ect in the disease conditions named above, emerging data for additional indications is rather weak and side e?ects should be taken into consideration. In addition to the inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase, a multitude of additional drug-related and o?-target e?ects with possible therapeutic value have been described. In the previous issue of Arthritis Research and erapy Importantly, it has also been demonstrated that statins Vandebriel and colleagues [1] report that the statins have immunomodulatory properties. Most