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Potential Therapeutic Effects of Statins in Alzheimer’s Disease

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Handbook of Neurotoxicity

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Abstract

Statins are a family of lipid-lowering agents, long known to be beneficial in conditions where dyslipidemia occurs, such as atherosclerosis. Very recently, statins also have been proposed for use in neurodegenerative conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, it is clear that the purported effectiveness of statins in neurodegenerative disorders is not directly related to cholesterol-lowering effects of these agents but, rather, to their pleiotropic functions.

Moreover, evidence from randomized, double-blind clinical trials demonstrated that statins have only limited beneficial effects in improving cognitive function in AD patients with moderate dementia. There is also a suggestion that in nondemented elderly people, statin use can be associated with cognitive impairments. Possible mechanisms underlying these effects are discussed along with the pros and cons of the use of statins in neurodegenerative disorders.

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Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Dr. Marina Mele for expert graphical assistance. This work was in the frame of a grant of the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research PRIN 2009 to CM and was supported in part by a NIH grant to D.A.B. [AG-05119] and by an Alzheimer’s Association grant to EH (IIRG 035673).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Pharmacology, Catholic University School of Medicine, Largo Francesco Vito 1, 00168, Rome, Italy

    Cesare Mancuso, Eugenio Barone & Paolo Preziosi

  2. Department of Molecular and Biomedical Pharmacology, and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Elizabeth Head

  3. Department of Chemistry, Center of Membrane Sciences, and Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, 40506, USA

    Eugenio Barone & D. Allan Butterfield

  4. Department of Biochemical Sciences, Faculty of Pharmacy and Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00185, Rome, Italy

    Marzia Perluigi

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  1. Cesare Mancuso
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  2. Elizabeth Head
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  3. Eugenio Barone
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  4. Marzia Perluigi
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  5. Paolo Preziosi
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  6. D. Allan Butterfield
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Correspondence to Cesare Mancuso .

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  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee, USA

    Richard M. Kostrzewa

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Mancuso, C., Head, E., Barone, E., Perluigi, M., Preziosi, P., Butterfield, D.A. (2014). Potential Therapeutic Effects of Statins in Alzheimer’s Disease. In: Kostrzewa, R. (eds) Handbook of Neurotoxicity. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-5836-4_171

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