Do statins slow down aging?
Researchers at the University of Naples, working under the leadership of Giuseppe Paolisso, have found that statins – drugs widely used to lower cholesterol levels in the blood – can slow down the aging process of a person.
Statin class drugs are used worldwide for the prevention of myocardial infarction and stroke in patients at risk. The mechanism of their action is based on blocking the activity of the liver enzyme that provides cholesterol synthesis.
The results of a new study have shown that statins have another very interesting effect – they are able to slow down the shortening of telomeres, that is, they are a potential geroprotector.
Telomeres are protective end sections of chromosomes that represent a repeating sequence of DNA. It is believed that as the body ages, telomeres shorten, which ultimately leads to the loss of the cell's ability to divide. The natural mechanism for preventing or slowing down telomere shortening is the activity of the telomerase enzyme, which builds up the fragments of telomeres lost during each cell division.
As part of the study, the authors evaluated the activity of telomerase in the leukocytes of 203 people aged 30-86 years, divided into 2 groups. Participants in one group have been taking statins continuously for a long time, while participants in the second group have never taken drugs of this class.
Analysis of the data obtained showed that the cells of patients who regularly take statins are characterized with high reliability by higher levels of telomerase activity and, accordingly, less pronounced age-related telomere shortening than for the cells of patients who have never taken statins (on average 33 pairs of nucleotides per year in the first group and 58 in the second). The most pronounced differences were found between the groups of study participants aged over 65 years.
According to the authors, statins can provide us with access to a previously unknown molecular mechanism that allows us to slow down the physiological aging of cells and increase life expectancy without harm to health.
However, other experts note that, despite the proven ability of statins to reduce the risk of death from cardiovascular diseases and their comparative safety for most patients, do not forget that these drugs have very unpleasant side effects, such as damage to muscle tissue and an increase in the risk of type 2 diabetes.
On the other hand, there is evidence that statins have a preventive effect against malignant diseases. In particular, they reduce the risk of death from prostate cancer.
Apparently, to date, the therapeutic potential of statins has not been fully disclosed and it is quite possible that drugs of this class have a great future ahead.
Article by Virginia Boccardi et al. A new pleiotropic effect of statins in elderly: modulation of telomerase activity is published in The FASEB Journal.
Evgeniya Ryabtseva
Portal "Eternal youth" http://vechnayamolodost.ru according to Medical News Today: Statins may slow aging process.
02.09.2013