ArticleCancer science2007
Simvastatin inactivates beta1-integrin and extracellular signal-related kinase signaling and inhibits cell proliferation in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cells.
Article in Cancer science, 2007. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 31 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
31 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 56 citations in OpenAlex.
- Repurposing statins for the management of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma: A systematic review of preclinical and clinical evidence.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2026Pooled it
- In vitro Anti-Tumor Effects of Statins on Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma: A Systematic Review.PloS one · 2015Pooled it
- Effect of Simvastatin on Success of Pulpotomy in Carious Permanent Molars With Symptomatic Irreversible Pulpitis: A Randomised Controlled Trial.Australian endodontic journal : the journal of the Australian Society of Endodontology Inc · 2026Trial
- Aneuploidy sensitizes cells to SREBP-pathway inhibition in squamous cell carcinoma.bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology · 2026Article
- Self-supervised pretraining with NuSPIRe unlocks nuclear morphology-driven insights in spatial omics.Genome biology · 2026Article
- MDM2 and DNMT1 inhibitors induce neuroblastoma cell death through p53-dependent and independent pathways.Epigenomics · 2025Article
- Drug repurposing in oncology: a path beyond the bottleneck.Medical oncology (Northwood, London, England) · 2025Review
- Statins as anti-tumor agents: A paradigm for repurposed drugs.Cancer reports (Hoboken, N.J.) · 2024Review
- Statins in Cancer Prevention and Therapy.Cancers · 2023Review
- Article
- Effects of the Prior Use of Statins on Head and Neck Cancer Risk: A Hospital-Based Case-Control Study.Pharmaceuticals (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Article
- Upregulation of SQLE Contributes to Poor Survival in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma.International journal of biological sciences · 2022Article
- Simvastatin inhibits oral squamous cell carcinoma by targeting TMEM16A CaJournal of cancer research and clinical oncology · 2021Article
- Simvastatin ameliorates altered mechanotransduction in uterine leiomyoma cells.American journal of obstetrics and gynecology · 2020Article
- Anti-Proliferative Effect of Statins Is Mediated by DNMT1 Inhibition and p21 Expression in OSCC Cells.Cancers · 2020Article
- The effects of statins on dental and oral health: a review of preclinical and clinical studies.Journal of translational medicine · 2020Review
- Inhibiting Airway Smooth Muscle Contraction Using Pitavastatin: A Role for the Mevalonate Pathway in Regulating Cytoskeletal Proteins.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2020Article
- Role of Focal Adhesion Kinase in Head and Neck Squamous Cell Carcinoma and Its Therapeutic Prospect.OncoTargets and therapy · 2020Review
- Targeting Cellular Metabolism Modulates Head and Neck Oncogenesis.International journal of molecular sciences · 2019Review
- Inhibitory effect of simvastatin in nasopharyngeal carcinoma cells.Experimental and therapeutic medicine · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
9 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl (HMG)-CoA reductase inhibitors, also called statins, are commonly used as lipid-lowering drugs that inhibit cholesterol biosynthesis. An anticancer effect, as a pleiotropic function of certain statins, has been hypothesized. In the present study, we investigated the effect of simvastatin, one of the natural statins, on cell proliferation, cell cycle, invasive activity, and molecular expressions associated with cell-extracellular matrix adhesion, signal transduction, and DNA synthesis in Tu167 and JMAR cells from head and neck squamous cell carcinoma. The addition of simvastatin resulted in a dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth and migration into the extracellular matrix. Considerable morphological changes occurred after treatment with simvastatin, demonstrating loss of cell adhesion and disruption of actin filaments in cytoplasm. The inhibitory effect of simvastatin on cell proliferation seemed to be associated with cell cycle arrest and increased expression of p21, p27, and activated caspase-3. The expression of beta1-integrin, a counter adhesion for the extracellular matrix, phosphorylated FAK, and phosphorylated ERK was decreased by treatment with simvastatin. The proapoptotic effect of simvastatin was inhibited by treatment with mevalonate. cDNA microarray assay demonstrated that molecular changes resulting from treatment with simvastatin included the up-regulation of cell cycle regulators and apoptosis-inducing factors and the down-regulation of integrin-associated molecules and cell proliferation markers. Of down-regulated genes induced by simvastatin treatment, a significant depletion of thymidylate synthase was confirmed using western blot analysis. These results imply that simvastatin has the potential to be effective for the prevention of the growth and metastasis of cancer cells.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.