Review Article

Potential Effect of Statins on Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection

Table 2

Statin treatment of tuberculosis in animal models.

AuthorAnimal modelTreatmentStrainEffect

Parihar et al.C57BL/6 mice (age 8-12 weeks)Simvastatin or rosuvastatin (20 mg/kg) i.p. every second day for 6 weeksLow-dose aerosol-based M. tuberculosis H37RvUp 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 months1 × 104 live M. leprae in 10 μL inoculated in each footpadReduced 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 weeksAerosol infection with 3.7 log10 CFU of M. tuberculosis CDC1551The combination regimen with simvastatin enhanced mycobacterial killing and reduced the relapse rates in mice treated for 2.5 and 3.5 months