New Study Finds that Statin Drugs Protect Against Cognitive Decline

21-Jul-2006

A new study presented at the 10th International Conference on Alzheimer's disease and Related Disorders (ICAD) in Madrid has found that use of statin drugs significantly protected against cognitive decline in elderly African Americans: Statin Use Protects Against Cognitive Decline In African-American Elderly, Hendrie H, Shen J, Gao S, Unverzag FW, Murrell J, Hall KS. Researchers from the Indiana University Center for Aging Research and the Indiana University School of medicine measured the rate of cognitive decline in 1149 elderly non-demented African Americans over the age of 70 over a 3 year period and found that the average rate of decline for statin drug users was over 70% less than non-users (0.12 vs 0.46).

A second study of 1,532 elderly women presented at ICAD by researchers from Johns Hopkins University and Gothenburg University, found that there was an increased risk of dementia associated with higher cholesterol levels ten or more years before the onset of disease: The Association Of Cholesterol With Dementia Over Time In The Prospective Population Study Of Women In Gothenburg, Sweden Zandi PP, MielkeMM, Shao H, Guo X, Waern M, Sacuiu S, Ostling S, Gustafson D, Skoog I.

Nymox Pharmaceutical Corporation holds U.S. and global patent rights for the use of statin drugs for the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease (AD), the symptoms of which include cognitive decline, including memory loss, and dementia. Statins are a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs that are the biggest-selling prescription pills in pharmaceutical history with estimated 2004 global sales of up to $26 billion. Alzheimer's disease is the leading cause of dementia in the elderly, afflicting an estimated 4.5 million people in the U.S. alone.

The potential for statin drugs to treat or reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease has been bolstered by several recently published studies and reviews in leading medical and scientific journals. One study followed 3,334 people over the age of 65 for an average of seven years and found that regular statin use was associated with a rate of deterioration less than half of that of untreated patients (Neurology 2005; 65:1388-1394). A second three year study of 342 AD patients found evidence that statins slowed the progression of AD (J. Neurol. Neurosurg. Psychiatry 2005; 76:1624-1629). Recent expert articles reviewing the clinical and scientific evidence in the field have also highlighted the potential of statin drugs for the treatment or prevention of AD: The American Journal of Medicine 2005; 118: 48S-53S; The Lancet Neurology 2005; 4:841-852; Current Opinions in Lipidology 2005;16: 619-623; The Lancet Neurology 2005; 4: 521-2.

The potential use of statins to treat Alzheimer's disease has been widely reported in the peer-reviewed medical literature, both in terms of clinical data, (such as Arch Neurol (2005; 62:1047-51); Neurology (2005; 64:1531-8); Arch Neurol (2005; 62:753-7); J Neurol Sci (2005; 229-230:147-50); Arch Gen Psychiatry (2005; 62:217-24)) and possible mechanisms through which statins may prevent or slow the progression of Alzheimer's disease (such as J Neurosci Res (2005; 82:10-19); J Biol Chem (2005; M505268200); PLoS Med (2005; 2:e18); J Neurosci (2005; 25:299-307)).

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