Trial reportAlzheimer disease and associated disorders
Effects of simvastatin on cholesterol metabolism and Alzheimer disease biomarkers.
Trial report in Alzheimer disease and associated disorders. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 34 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
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
34 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 69 citations in OpenAlex.
- Systematic review of the efficacy of statins for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.Clinical medicine (London, England) · 2018Pooled it
- Statins, cognition, and dementia—systematic review and methodological commentary.Nature reviews. Neurology · 2015Pooled it
- Effects of simvastatin on white matter integrity in healthy middle-aged adults.Annals of clinical and translational neurology · 2021Trial
- Longitudinal plasma amyloid beta in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2015Trial
- Multi-Target-Directed Ligands (MTDLs) as Potential Therapeutic Candidates Targeting Multiple Pathogenic Factor of Alzheimer's Disease.CNS neuroscience & therapeutics · 2026Review
- Navigating the cholesterol maze: Key insights on use of statins in neurodegenerative disorders.Neuroprotection (Chichester, England) · 2026Review
- Exploring biomarkers of neurodegenerative risk: associations of oxysterols, sex hormones, and reproductive characteristics in older women.Journal of lipid research · 2025Article
- Lipid metabolism in microglia: Emerging mechanisms and therapeutic opportunities for neurodegenerative diseases (Review).International journal of molecular medicine · 2025Review
- Cholesterol-modifying strategies for Alzheimer disease: promise or fallacy?Expert review of neurotherapeutics · 2025Review
- Amyloid-beta metabolism in age-related neurocardiovascular diseases.European heart journal · 2025Review
- Potential Use of the Cholesterol Transfer Inhibitor U18666A as a Potent Research Tool for the Study of Cholesterol Mechanisms in Neurodegenerative Disorders.Molecular neurobiology · 2024Review
- The Diagnostic Use of the Plasma Quantification of 24S-Hydroxycholesterol and Other Oxysterols in Neurodegenerative Disease.Advances in experimental medicine and biology · 2024Article
- TREM2 in the pathogenesis of AD: a lipid metabolism regulator and potential metabolic therapeutic target.Molecular neurodegeneration · 2022Review
- Are Parkinson's Disease Patients the Ideal Preclinical Population for Alzheimer's Disease Therapeutics?Journal of personalized medicine · 2021Review
- The Controversial Role of 24-S-Hydroxycholesterol in Alzheimer's Disease.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2021Review
- Serotonin transporter regulation by cholesterol-independent lipid signaling.Biochemical pharmacology · 2021Article
- Statins in Neuro-ophthalmology.Neuro-ophthalmology (Aeolus Press) · 2021Review
- Assessment of brain cholesterol metabolism biomarker 24S-hydroxycholesterol in schizophrenia.NPJ schizophrenia · 2020Article
- The Alzheimer's Disease Amyloid-Beta Hypothesis in Cardiovascular Aging and Disease: JACC Focus Seminar.Journal of the American College of Cardiology · 2020Review
- Amyloid-β-independent regulators of tau pathology in Alzheimer disease.Nature reviews. Neuroscience · 2020Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Preclinical and epidemiologic studies suggest a protective effect of statins on Alzheimer disease (AD). Experimental evidence indicates that some statins can cross the blood-brain barrier, alter brain cholesterol metabolism, and may ultimately decrease the production of amyloid-beta (Abeta) peptide. Despite these promising leads, clinical trials have yielded inconsistent results regarding the benefits of statin treatment in AD. Seeking to detect a biological signal of statins effect on AD, we conducted a 12-week open-label trial with simvastatin 40 mg/d and then 80 mg/d in 12 patients with AD or amnestic mild cognitive impairment and hypercholesterolemia. We quantified cholesterol precursors and metabolites and AD biomarkers of Abeta and tau in both plasma and cerebrospinal fluid at baseline and after the 12-week treatment period. We found a modest but significant inhibition of brain cholesterol biosynthesis after simvastatin treatment, as indexed by a decrease of cerebrospinal fluid lathosterol and plasma 24S-hydroxycholesterol. Despite this effect, there were no changes in AD biomarkers. Our findings indicate that simvastatin treatment can affect brain cholesterol metabolism within 12 weeks, but did not alter molecular indices of AD pathology during this short-term treatment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
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.