Statin, drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol, it can be used to fight malaria infection, particularly cerebral malaria, malaria types that can cause brain damage. According to a new study in the United States.
This study conducted an experiment by adding lovastatin, a cholesterol-lowering drug that is widely used as an anti-malarial therapy that can reduce neuroinflammation and protect against brain damage in mice infected with cerebral malaria.
Although the new researchers can prove the benefits of statins to treat malaria in mice, but they suggest for future clinical treatment can use statins, especially for diseases that are transmitted from mosquitoes.
The mechanism of statins in lowering cholesterol levels is by inhibiting HMG-CoA reductase enzyme, which plays an important role preformance production of cholesterol in the liver. Beside that statins have also been shown to be effective in modulating the immune system responses.
Senior researcher and head of a research associate in the Department of Medicine, University of Utah, Guy Zimmerman and his team found that by adding lovastatin for malaria therapy can prevent cognitive dysfunction in mice infected with cerebral malaria. He also added, lovastatin can reduce the accumulation of white blood cells and leakage of the blood vessels in the brain in rats pecobaan.
The study, published in the journal PLOS Pathogens also found that statins can fight inflammation by reducing the damage to the amount of blood that carries oxygen molecules. However, the mechanism of statins in preventing cognitive dysfunction is unknown.
"The results of our findings is interesting, because the clinical implications of cerebral malaria is complex and involves the systemic inflammatory brain health," said Zimmerman. "We believe the results of this study may be evidence of the use of statins weeks to reduce cognitive dysfunction in patients with cerebral malaria," he concluded.
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