Re: Good overview of pantethine, Europe and Japan's safe and effective alternative to statin drugs; Pantethine is considered "atoxic" due to its superior safety profile

x-no-archive: yes


Jim Chinnis wrote: 
Susan <nevermind@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote in part:


x-no-archive: yes

Jim Chinnis wrote:


No. I'm saying that "statin" is the common term for a drug that inhibits
HMG-CoA reductase.


It's not a scientific term for a specific class of active compounds?


Susan 


I thought it was the common term for "HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor." But
apparently pantethine is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor but isn't usually
thought of as a statin. Go figure.
--
Jim Chinnis   Warrenton, Virginia, USA


Does this help at all?

 Atherosclerosis. 1987 Nov;68(1-2):41-9. 	Related Articles, Links

Pantethine lipomodulation: evidence for cysteamine mediation in vitro and in vivo.

Wittwer CT, Graves CP, Peterson MA, Jorgensen E, Wilson DE, Thoene JG, Wyse BW, Windham CT, Hansen RG.

Department of Pathology, University of Utah Medical School, Salt Lake City 84132.

Recent human studies suggest rapid in vivo hydrolysis of the lipid-lowering drug, pantethine, to the vitamin pantothenic acid and the small aminothiol compound, cysteamine. To test whether the active agent is a hydrolysis product, we repeated three experimental models of pantethine's effect with pantothenate and cysteamine. In vitro experiments with human fetal fibroblasts showed equivalent modulation of cholesterol and methyl sterol synthesis by pantethine, cysteamine, or cystamine (the disulfide of cysteamine), but pantothenate had no effect. Similarly, in vivo experiments with 0.5% cholesterol-fed rabbits showed oral pantethine or equimolar cystamine significantly lowered plasma cholesterol, while pantothenate, cystine, and 2-hydroxyethyl disulfide did not. Lastly, diabetic male rats (40 mg/kg streptozotocin) fed 0.1% pantethine and lower plasma free fatty acids after 2 weeks than controls, an effect not seen with pantothenate and largely duplicated by cystamine. The efficacy of pantethine has previously been attributed to altered vitamin metabolism and increased coenzyme A concentration. Pantethine did increase CoA levels 45% in rat liver homogenates while equivalent amounts of cystamine or pantothenate did not. However, a causal relationship between CoA levels and pantethine's action as a hypolipemic agent has never been shown. At least in 3 independent experimental models, the lipomodulating effect of pantethine appears instead to be mediated by the hydrolysis product cysteamine.

    PMID: 3689482 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Susan
.

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