title: Statins impair glucose uptake in tumor cells.
abstract: Statins play a pivotal role in lowering the blood cholesterol level, which is critical for patients with hypercholesterolemia. In addition to its benefits in cardiovascular protection, statins have been found to be useful in several other clinical conditions, including cancer. In a recent report that appeared in Neoplasia, Malenda et al., have demonstrated that statins inhibit glucose uptake in cancer cells. Using multiple statins and glucose analogs ( ( 18) FDG and 6-NBDG) they showed that inhibition of cholesterol synthesis underlies the blockade of glucose uptake in several cancer cell lines. Further, based on an exploratory clinical study, they also showed that diagnostic PET-CT imaging in patients treated for hypercholesterolemia was affected due to statin-mediated inhibition of glucose uptake. As the finding is based on the data from a single patient (out of four), it seems that (1) the need for a large cohort study and (2) the detailed characterization of the molecular mechanisms underlying such biological effects would be justified.
authors.affiliation: Russell H. Morgan Department of Radiology and Radiological Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Baltimore, MD USA.
authors.forename: Shanmugasundaram
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Ganapathy-Kanniappan
authors.forename: Rani
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kunjithapatham
authors.forename: Jean-Francois H
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Geschwind
mesh_terms: D005260:Female; D005947:Glucose / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors / Q000494:pharmacology*; D007962:Leukocytes / Q000187:drug effects*; D008297:Male; D064847:Multimodal Imaging; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism*; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed
chemical_list: D019161:Hydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase Inhibitors; D005947:Glucose