In contrast, no clinical or metabolic decline was found for users of other statins or for statin users with higher baseline serum cholesterol levels. Over time, PET imaging of lipophilic statin users also showed a substantial decline in metabolism in the posterior cingulate cortex, the region of the brain known to decline the most significantly in the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Patients with mild cognitive impairment or normal cognition who used lipophilic statins were found to have more than double the risk of developing dementia compared to statin non-users. Eight years of subject clinical data was analyzed. Participants underwent 18F-FDG PET imaging to identify any regions of declining cerebral metabolism within each statin group. Researchers separated study participants into groups based on three parameters: baseline cognitive status, baseline cholesterol levels, and type of statin used. Our study aimed to clarify the relationship between statin use and subject’s long-term cognitive trajectory.” “While some claim that satins protect users against dementia, others assert that they accelerate the development of dementia.

“There have been many conflicting studies on the effects of statin drugs on cognition,” said Prasanna Padmanabham, project head, statins and cognition in the molecular and medical pharmacology student research program at the University of California, Los Angeles in Los Angeles, California.

Different types of statins are available based on a patient’s health needs, including hydrophilic statins that focus on the liver and lipophilic statins that are distributed to tissues throughout the body. They are the most commonly used drugs in the developed world, and nearly 50 percent of Americans over age 75 use a statin. Statins are medications used to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart attack or stroke. According to research presented at the Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging 2021 Annual Meeting, positron emission tomography (PET) scans of lipophilic statin users revealed a highly significant decline in metabolism in the area of the brain that is first impacted by Alzheimer’s disease. In patients with mild cognitive impairment, taking lipophilic statins more than doubles their risk of developing dementia compared to those who do not take statins. Credit: Image created by Prasanna Padmanabham and Daniel Silverman, UCLA Significant metabolic decline in the posterior cingulate cortex in lipophilic statin users after five to six years (top) compared to hydrophilic statin users and non-statin users (bottom).

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