Department of Drug Discovery and Biomedical Sciences, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston, South Carolina, USA.

Statin-dependent modulation of mitochondrial metabolism in cancer cells is independent of cholesterol content.

Published in The FASEB Journal

Statins, widely used to treat hypercholesterolemia, inhibit the 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase, the rate-limiting enzyme of de novo cholesterol (Chol) synthesis. Statins have been also reported to slow tumor progression. In cancer cells, ATP is generated both by glycolysis and oxidative phosphorylation. Mitochondrial membrane poten...