Statins - why their effects vary
17 Jun 2008
Research in the US concludes that the variability between patients in the effect of statins is a result of a quirk in the production of a protein known as HMGCR, which plays a critical role in the production of LDL cholesterol. Dr Ronald Krauss, of the Children’s Hospital Oakland Research Center in Oakland, California, says people use HMGCR to produce LDL in an alternative way, however, and this difference is “strongly related to the LDL-lowering effect of statins”. The findings appear in Circulation.