Hello friends! Want to share this brand-new study, which found that statins, drugs commonly used to lower cholesterol in adults, might be a new treatment for infantile hemangiomas (IH). The researchers discovered that statins work by affecting a specific pathway in the cells that form blood vessels in IH. They tested statins in lab experiments and in mice with IH-like growths, finding that statins reduced blood vessel formation. Statins can be used either topically or orally. While statins are generally considered safe, they can have side effects like muscle pain, increased risk of diabetes, and liver problems. Statins have been safely used in babies and children for other conditions, such as a rare genetic disorder called Smith-Lemli-Opitz syndrome and a type of hair loss called alopecia areata, but only in small numbers.
This exciting study shows that an existing medicine might eventually be used in a new way to treat IH and possibly other conditions involving abnormal blood vessel growth. This is called "drug repurposing", which offers a potentially faster and more cost-effective route to new treatments for many medical conditions.
Reference:
Holm, Annegret; Graus, Matthew S; Wylie-Sears, Jill; Borgelt, Luke; Heng Tan, Jerry Wei; Nasim, Sana; Chung, Long; Jain, Ashish; Sun, Mingwei; Sun, Liang; Brouillard, Pascal; Lekwuttikarn, Ramrada; Kozakewich, Harry; Qi, Jacob Yanfei; Teng, Joyce C; Mulliken, John B; Vikkula, Miikka; Francois, Mathias; Bischoff, Joyce
ISSN: 2692-8205 , 2692-8205; DOI: 10.1101/2024.01.29.577829; PMID: 39026886
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