Statins might offer protection against Alzheimer's
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 28, 2007 | 12:45 PM ET
CBC News
Cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins might also protect the brain from the ravages of Alzheimer's, a small study has found.
Autopsies of the brains of 110 people aged 65 to 79 suffering from Alzheimer's showed that those taking statins such as Lipitor, Mevacor, Crestor or Zocor had fewer sticky plaques and "tangles," which are the hallmarks of the disease, according to researchers.
Scientists found that people taking statins had significantly fewer neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques in their brains, indicators of Alzheimer's.
(CBC)
Statins are prescribed to lower cholesterol in people with heart disease or who are at risk of heart disease.
"These results are exciting, novel, and have important implications for prevention strategies," said senior co-author Eric Larson, the leader of the study and executive director of Group Health Center for Health Studies at the University of Washington. "But they need to be confirmed, because [the study] is not a randomized controlled trial."
The ACT or Adult Changes in Thought Study is published in the Aug. 28 issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
It tracked 2,523 patients under age 80 who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. By July 2006, 608 or 24 per cent had died, "with an overall mortality rate that was lower in statin users than non-users," according to the study.
Twenty-six per cent of those who died had not been on statins, while 19 per cent had been taking the medications, said researchers.
Statin users were defined as those individuals who had received at least three prescriptions for these drugs; of the 110 people whose brains were autopsied, 36 had received at least three statin prescriptions.
Using an established staging system for Alzheimer's, scientists found that people taking statins had significantly fewer neurofibrillary tangles and neuritic plaques in their brains.
The scientists warn that more study is needed, given that the research relies on the subjects' permission to have their brains autopsied, some of the parameters used to assess the severity of Alzheimer's are "crude" and the sample size is small.
