Statins and the Atrogin-1 Gene

by **gotts1936** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 10:12 am

Darn, I hate to add another website to these statins discussions, but the study I just downloaded appears to explain that statin induced expression of atrogin-1 , a key gene involved in skeletal muscle atrophy, can cause myopathy in humans without any CK increases.

The study was first published November 8, 2007. I found it on The Journal of Clinical Investigation website. Has anyone read the study? If so, what is your opinion of it?

( *www.jci.org/articles/view/32741 )

I took Lovastatin and what was interesting was that all of the studies in this article used lovastatin to induce the atrogin-1 gene and produce muscle cell atrophy.

gotts

by **gotts1936** » Fri Jul 24, 2009 12:13 pm

Oops, I'm sorry, I forgot to say that this study, is not unique to Lovastatin, and mentions Cerivastatin and other statins as producing the same results.

gotts

by **Biologist** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 10:47 am

Nice find, Gotts.

I'm about half-way through it. I keep getting side-tracked with Wikipedia for researching terms/words/concepts used. Then from one such hyperlink to others. I will eventually get through it though. Thanks.

Biologist

by **gotts1936** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 2:32 pm

Biologist, bless you. I do not have the knowledge you have and was wondering if you would respond. I am fairly intelligent, but there appears to be so much information in this study that I said to myself I hope Biologist will be able to make some sense out of it.

I was interested in the possible protective properties of Metformin and PGC-1a expression against statin damage and the possibility of actually decreasing the mtDNA mutations which are causing the muscle atrophy and constant daily pain in many of us with statin damage.

This study appears to be all encompassing and I am hoping it is not just pie in the sky.

I particularly was encouraged by the following: ( Such studies should shed additional light on the molecular mechanisms of statin-induced myopathy and enable the stratification of patients who might be susceptible to such injury ).

Let's keep our fingers crossed!

Again, thanks for reviewing this study.

gotts

by **gotts1936** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 1:53 pm

Let me add, for those who do not know what straitification means. Straitification means being able to test patients and tell them they should not use a statin drug to lower their cholesterol.
gotts