“If we can understand more about how statins reduce inflammation at the molecular level, we may be able to design new drugs that can complement statins and enhance heart attack prevention,” - Dr. Xiaohui ZhaStatins are best known for reducing the risk of heart attack by lowering cholesterol, but they also reduce heart-damaging inflammation through a pathway that is not well understood. A new study led by researchers from The Ottawa Hospital and the University of Ottawa shows for the first time that statins’ anti-inflammatory effects may be linked to epigenetic changes in the DNA of immune cells called macrophages. 

As detailed in the journal eLife, the researchers found that statin treatment lowers cholesterol levels in macrophages, which causes a protein called Jmjd3 to remove certain molecular tags from the macrophage DNA. This changes how the DNA is organized and decreases the expression of inflammatory genes. 

“If we can understand more about how statins reduce inflammation at the molecular level, we may be able to design new drugs that can complement statins and enhance heart attack prevention,” said senior author Dr. Xiaohui Zha, Senior Scientist at The Ottawa Hospital and Professor at the University of Ottawa.

Authors: Zeina Salloum, Kristin Dauner, Yun-Fang Li, Neha Verma, David Valdivieso-González, Víctor G Almendro-Vedia, John D Zhang, Kiran Nakka, Mei Xi Chen, Jeffrey G McDonald, Chase D Corley, Alexander Sorisky, Bao-Liang Song, Iván López-Montero, Jie Luo, Jeffrey F Dilworth, Xiaohui Zha.

Funding: Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Regional Government of Madrid, U.S. National Institutes of Health.

Core resources: The Ottawa Hospital Biotherapeutic Manufacturing Centre

The Ottawa Hospital is a leading academic health, research and learning hospital proudly affiliated with the University of Ottawa and supported by The Ottawa Hospital Foundation.