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We've all recently gotten a crash-course in drug repurposing, thanks to near-daily news reports about efforts to identify existing medicines that could help treat COVID-19 in the early phase of the pandemic. A team of scientists jumped into the fray in the spring of 2020, applying novel computational drug repurposing approaches to confront the COVID-19 challenge. In the flurry of clinical studies being published by other scientists studying COVID-19, some found that statins seemed to reduce mortality in COVID-19 patients, while others found no effect—but these studies did not discriminate between different types of statin drugs. Now, the team have...

Using new genetic tools to study statins in human cells and mice, researchers have uncovered how the cholesterol-lowering drugs protect the cells that line blood vessels. The findings provide new insight into statins' curiously wide-ranging benefits, for conditions ranging from arteriosclerosis to diabetes, that have long been observed in the clinic. Liu tested simvastatin on lab-grown human endothelial cells. Endothelial cells make up the lining of blood vessels, but in many diseases they transform into a different cell type, known as mesenchymal cells. "Mesenchymal cells are less functional and make tissues stiffer so they cannot relax or contract correctly," Liu...

BLOOD clots are either dangerous or beneficial depending on how and where they form. According to a case study published in the Lancet, a woman almost lost her leg due to a dangerous blood clot after eating the same fruit daily - how much do you eat? =================================================================== Blood clots often form in response to injury. This is the body's way of stemming bleeding. However, blood clots that form in one or more of the deep veins in the body can spell trouble. This is known as deep vein thrombosis (DVT). According to a chilling case report published in the...

People with diabetes face the possibility of a number of serious complications, including poor wound healing. Now a new study has found that application of a topical statin drug speeds up wound healing in mice with diabetes.Could a statin drug help diabetic wound healing? Diabetes has several characteristics that make recovering from wounds more challenging. For example, people with diabetes have a weakened immune system, which makes healing more problematic. Nerve damage (neuropathy), which is common in diabetes, can make individuals unable to feel the pain associated with a cut or blister until it becomes infected. Diabetes is also...

American Heart Association meeting report ORLANDO, Nov. 7 — A cholesterol-lowering drug appears to disrupt sleep patterns of some patients, researchers reported at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions 2007. “The findings are significant because sleep problems can affect quality of life and may have adverse health consequences, such as promoting weight gain and insulin resistance,” said Beatrice Golomb, M.D., lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine and family and preventive medicine at the University of California at San Diego School of Medicine. In the largest study of its kind, researchers compared two types of cholesterol-lowering...

ONDON, May 14 — Britain will become the first country in the world to sell a cholesterol-reducing drug, called a statin, without a prescription. Starting in July, a low dosage of the drug Zocor will be sold over the counter to people at moderate risk of heart disease, a number that could reach 5 million to 10 million. That group includes all men older than 55, as well as men over 45 and women over 55 who smoke, are overweight, have a family history of heart disease or come from the Indian subcontinent, all groups that are at higher risk...