Can cholesterol-lowering drugs reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease?

In recent years, research has revealed several lines of evidence to support the hypothesis that cholesterol plays a role in Alzheimer's. One of these is the finding from population-based observation studies that people who take cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins have a considerably lower risk of developing Alzheimer's. Research in experimental animals has shown that statins reduce beta amyloid accumulation in the brain but only at doses that far exceed those taken by people for cholesterol control. Because high doses carry significant risks, scientists are trying to find a way to stimulate these effects using lower doses of statins.

Toward that end, researchers have dug deep inside nerve cells to unravel the chain of events through which statin drugs interact with beta amyloid. They have learned that statins activate the good pathway of amyloid processing, stimulating the production of harmless amyloid at the expense of the toxic form. Now they are screening other related compounds to identify any that may have similar effects and testing them in an animal model of Alzheimer's.

If we can identify other compounds that also activate the good pathway without unacceptable side effects, such drugs may -- either by themselves or in combination with statins -- effectively lower a-beta deposition. This would be a highly novel approach to treating or possibly preventing Alzheimer's.