Review Article
Potential Effect of Statins on Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection
Table 2
Statin treatment of tuberculosis in animal models.
| Author | Animal model | Treatment | Strain | Effect |
| Parihar et al. | C57BL/6 mice (age 8-12 weeks) | Simvastatin or rosuvastatin (20 mg/kg) i.p. every second day for 6 weeks | Low-dose aerosol-based M. tuberculosis H37Rv | Up to a 10-fold reduction in bacilli burden in spleen, liver, and lungs | Lobato et al. | Mouse foot pads of BALB/c mice (Shepard’s mouse model) | Atorvastatin (80 mg/kg/day added daily to food) alone or combined with rifampin (1 mg/kg by gavage weekly) for five months | 1 × 104 live M. leprae in 10 μL inoculated in each footpad | Reduced replication, additive effect with rifampin. Neither atorvastatin treatment nor combination treatment increased muscle damage or induced hepatotoxicity | Dutta et al. | BALB/c mice (age 4-6 weeks) | Rifampicin (10 mg/kg), isoniazid (10 mg/kg), and pyrazinamide (25 mg/kg), plus simvastatin (25 mg/kg) by gavage 5 days per week for 8 weeks | Aerosol infection with 3.7 log10 CFU of M. tuberculosis CDC1551 | The combination regimen with simvastatin enhanced mycobacterial killing and reduced the relapse rates in mice treated for 2.5 and 3.5 months |
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