Statin drugs for arthritis and cardioprotection

Statin is a cholesterol lowering drug which is found to be protective in reducing the incidence of heart attack by reducing the cholesterol in the body and research as also shown that statin is also helpful in reducing the inflammatory response in rheumatoid arthritis by killing the synovial cells responsible for inflammation.

Rheumatoid arthritis is a systemic chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease against rheumatoid factor which causes pain, stiffness, swelling in joints. The treatment for rheumatoid arthritis is aimed at reducing the inflammatory reaction and preserving the movement of joint.

Japanese researchers have reported in the Journal Arthritis and Rheumatism that the statin drug fluvastatin is found to cause cell death on synovial cells leading to anti-inflammatory effect in experimental animals. The anti-inflammatory response of fluvastatin as been found to be at higher dosage in experimental animals than prescribed for humans. The researchers feel still a lot as to be done before the effect of fluvastatin can be used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.

In a clinical study funded by Arthritis Research Campaign and the British Heart Foundation the researchers are planning to evaluate the cardio protective effect of statin drugs on 3,500 patients with rheumatoid arthritis, as studies have shown that patients with rheumatoid arthritis have an increased risk of developing cardiovascular complications.