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Seamas C Donnelly, Statins the ‘new’ aspirin, QJM: An International Journal of Medicine, Volume 117, Issue 11, November 2024, Page 757, https://doi.org/10.1093/qjmed/hcae223
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Since ancient times, willow bark and other salicylate-containing plants have been recognized for pain relief. Assyrians from the Sumerian period (3500–2000 BC) used willow bark to cure pain and inflammation.1 In 1997, Felix Hoffman, working for Bayer, described modifying salicylic acid to acetylsalicylic acid, which he named Aspirin.1 Subsequently, its anti-thrombotic and anti-neoplastic properties were defined.
HMG-CoA (3-hydroxy-3-methyl-glutaryl-CoA) reductase is the rate-limiting enzyme in the cholesterol biosynthetic pathway and represents an ideal therapeutic target for reducing plasma cholesterol concentrations. In the 1970s, Akira Endo, during a search for antimicrobial agents, first discovered natural products with a powerful inhibitory effect on HMG-CoA reductase.2 In 1978, Alfred Alberts et al.3 at Merck Research Laboratories found a potent inhibitor of HMG-CoA reductase in a fermentation broth of Aspergillus terreus. They initially named this compound Mevinolin and subsequently Lovastatin.
Statins have revolutionized the treatment of lipid disorders and consequently have had a profound effect in preventing acute cardiac and cerebrovascular events globally.
