Monday, 17 February 2020 13:08

Statins: Causes of muscle pain researched in vitro Featured

A team from the Max Delbrück Center in Berlin has used human muscle cells to find out how statins affect the development, growth and division of skeletal muscle cells. The results provide an indication for a preventive treatment to avoid side effects.


Statins are cholesterol and lipid reducers. They help to decrease low-density lipoproteins (LDL cholesterol) from the bloodstream, thus possibly lowering the risk of e.g. arteriosclerosis or heart attack. However, as serious side effects of these drugs, discomforts such as muscle pain, muscle atrophy up to a pronounced disintegration of muscles (rhabdomyolysis) may occur.

The research team led by Prof. Dr. Simone Spuler and Dr. Stefanie Anke Grunwald from the Max Delbrück Center (MDC) for Molecular Medicine and the Charité used human muscle biopsies of patients from which they produced 22 different primary muscle cell cultures. They tested the common statins simvastatin and rosuvastatin by treating the cell cultures with the drugs and examining the so-called expressome in the cells, i.e. the genes that were active and could thus produce a protein.

During their in vitro investigations, they found out that in the presence of the statins about 2,500 genes were regulated differently than usual. Both statins reduced not only the biosynthesis of cholesterol in the muscle cells but also influenced the fatty acid metabolism in general and the production of eicosanoids. However, the latter hormone-like substances are involved in the development of differentiated muscle cells from muscle precursor cells and in the development of pain. Both could contribute to the fact that statins can trigger muscle pain as a side effect.

The scientists also observed that the addition of omega-3 or omega-6 fatty acids can partially reverse the effects of simvastatin and rosuvastatin.

Original publication:
Stefanie Anke Grunwald, Oliver Popp, Stefanie Haafke, Nicole Jedraszczak, Ulrike Grieben, Kathrin Saar, Giannino Patone, Wolfram Kress, Elisabeth Steinhagen-Thiessen, Gunnar Dittmar & Simone Spuler (2020). Statin-induced myopathic changes in primary human muscle cells and reverse by a prostaglandin F2 alpha analogue. Scientific Reports 10: 2158. DOI: 10,1038/s41598-020-58668-2

Source:
https://www.pharmazeutische-zeitung.de/statine-beeinflussen-tausende-gene-115685/