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Fluvastatin May Lower Viral Load for Hepatitis C Patients OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla -- May 15, 2008 -- Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, have found a new use for an old drug. The drug, fluvastatin, has been approved since 1993 by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of elevated cholesterol in adults. Millions of patients have taken fluvastatin for cholesterol without difficulty. In a study published online in the American Journal of Gastroenterology, researchers found that monotherapy with fluvastatin significantly lowered the levels of hepatitis C virus (HCV) for up to 6 weeks. In this study, 31 veterans with chronic hepatitis C were prospectively given fluvastatin, 20 to 320 mg/day orally for 2 to 12 weeks. Subjects were monitored weekly with HCV-ribonucleic acid (RNA) and liver tests. Among those patients taking 80 mg a day or less, 11 of 22 (50%) responded with lower viral loads -- 9 patients had the first signs of lowering within 4 weeks. Continued lowering of virus loads was seen in 2 of 19 (22%) patients when the study ended. One patient's viral load was about 50 times lower than before taking fluvastatin. These findings support "proof-of-concept" for pilot trials combining fluvastatin with standard therapy. Since fluvastatin will not completely clear HCV by itself, researchers have started a phase II randomised, controlled trial that combines fluvastatin with the standard treatment of pegylated interferon and ribavirin. They hope to use this combination of medicines to significantly improve the cure rate for hepatitis C. After further testing and approval, the drug could be available as a new treatment for hepatitis C far sooner than any other antihepatitis C drug currently under research and development. "We need additional drugs to add to this regimen to improve the cure rate," said Ted Bader, MD, the principal investigator on the project and the Director of Liver Diseases at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. "When patients are cured, they feel dramatically better, their healthcare costs plummet, their risk of liver cancer drops dramatically; and if they do not have cirrhosis, they will not need a liver transplant. Moreover, they are no longer infectious." Source: American Journal of Gastroenterology E-mail this page to a friend or colleague! To print, use this version