ArticleEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2018
In vitro antibacterial effects of statins against bacterial pathogens causing skin infections.
Article in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers.
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
26 citing papers in PubMed, 54 citations in OpenAlex.
- Review
- Selective statin therapy and nasal staphylococcal colonisation: a retrospective case-control study.European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology · 2026Article
- Beyond Antibiotics: Repurposing Non-Antibiotic Drugs as Novel Antibacterial Agents to Combat Resistance.International journal of molecular sciences · 2025Review
- New Frontiers for Old Medications: Repurposing Approved Drugs Against Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections.Microorganisms · 2025Review
- Comparative metabolomics reveals streptophenazines with anti-methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus activity derived from Streptomyces albovinaceus strain WA10-1-8 isolated from Periplaneta americana.BMC microbiology · 2025Article
- Statins, Allies against Antibiotic Resistance?Current medicinal chemistry · 2025Review
- Type I and type III collagen immunoexpression in rabbit skin biopsy samples treated with rosuvastatin gel and autologous platelet-rich plasma.Acta cirurgica brasileira · 2025Article
- Association between statin administration and outcome in patients with sepsis: A retrospective study.Open medicine (Warsaw, Poland) · 2025Article
- Simvastatin Efficacy on Endodontic Biofilms: An In Vitro Study.Materials (Basel, Switzerland) · 2024Article
- Article
- Review
- Medication-related osteonecrosis of the jaw: evolving research for multimodality medical management.Supportive care in cancer : official journal of the Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer · 2024Review
- Unveiling the Antibacterial Properties of Statins: AnAdvances in pharmacological and pharmaceutical sciences · 2024Article
- Repositioning of HMG-CoA Reductase Inhibitors as Adjuvants in the Modulation of Efflux Pump-Mediated Bacterial and Tumor Resistance.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2023Review
- Simvastatin-hydroxyapatite coatings prevent biofilm formation and improve bone formation in implant-associated infections.Bioactive materials · 2023Article
- Repurposing of atorvastatin emulsomes as a topical antifungal agent.Drug delivery · 2022Article
- Non-Antibiotic Drug Repositioning as an Alternative Antimicrobial Approach.Antibiotics (Basel, Switzerland) · 2022Review
- Niobium carbide-mediated photothermal therapy for infected wound treatment.Frontiers in bioengineering and biotechnology · 2022Article
- Topical Antibiofilm Agents With Potential Utility in the Treatment of Chronic Rhinosinusitis: A Narrative Review.Frontiers in pharmacology · 2022Review
- Molecular Mechanisms of Lipid Metabolism Disorders in Infectious Exacerbations of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.International journal of molecular sciences · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
With financial considerations impeding research and development of new antibiotics, drug repurposing (finding new indications for old drugs) emerges as a feasible alternative. Statins are extensively prescribed around the world to lower cholesterol, but they also possess inherent antimicrobial properties. This study identifies statins with the greatest potential to be repurposed as topical antibiotics and postulates a mechanism of action for statins' antibacterial activity. Using broth microdilution, the direct antibacterial effects of all seven parent statins currently registered for human use and three selected statin metabolites were tested against bacterial skin pathogens Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Serratia marcescens. Simvastatin and pitavastatin lactone exerted the greatest antibacterial effects (minimum inhibitory concentrations of 64 and 128 μg/mL, respectively) against S. aureus. None of the statins tested were effective against E. coli, P. aeruginosa, or S. marcescens, but simvastatin hydroxy acid acid might be active against S. aureus, E. coli, and S. marcescens at drug concentrations > 256 μg/mL. It was found that S. aureus may exhibit a paradoxical growth effect when exposed to simvastatin; thus, treatment failure at high drug concentrations is theoretically probable. Through structure-activity relationship analysis, we postulate that statins' antibacterial action may involve disrupting the teichoic acid structures or decreasing the number of alanine residues present on Gram-positive bacterial cell surfaces, which could reduce biofilm formation, diminish bacterial adhesion to environmental surfaces, or impede S. aureus cell division.
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.