The Study
Pharmacogenomic insights into atorvastatin and rosuvastatin adverse effects: a prospective observational study in the UAE’s multiethnic population
This study looked at people who were already taking statins and found that those with certain genes were more likely to have side effects like muscle pain or liver issues. But it didn’t change anyone’s medicine — it just watched what happened, so we can’t say the genes definitely caused the problems.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Some people feel muscle pain or get liver problems when taking statins — this study found it’s often because of their genes and where they’re from.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — for East Asian women with the ABCG2 variant, rosuvastatin could be risky; for Arab women with SLCO1B1, atorvastatin may cause more muscle pain.
- 2People with a specific gene variant (SLCO1B1) had 2x more muscle pain on atorvastatin; those with another variant (ABCG2) had 3x more liver issues on rosuvastatin — especially East Asians and women.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Human Genomics
Year
2025
Authors
Mais N. Alqasrawi, Zeina N. Al-Mahayri, Areej S Albawa'neh, Lubna Q Khasawneh, Lilas Dabaghie, Sahar M. Altoum, Dana Hamza, Virendra Misra, H. Ouda, Salahdein Aburuz, F. Al-Maskari, J. Alkaabi, G. Patrinos, Bassam R. Ali
Related Content
Claims (6)
Statins cause muscle pain, fatigue, and cognitive impairment in some people, and the type and severity of these effects differ between individuals.
Adults taking atorvastatin who carry the SLCO1B1 rs4149056 genetic variant experience twice the rate of muscle symptoms compared to non-carriers, and this effect is higher in females and individuals of Arab ethnicity.
Adults taking rosuvastatin who carry the ABCG2 rs2231142 genetic variant have three times the rate of liver enzyme elevation as those without the variant, especially among people of East Asian ancestry.
People taking both rosuvastatin and ezetimibe together experience more muscle symptoms and higher liver enzyme levels than those taking rosuvastatin alone.
East Asian people taking rosuvastatin are more likely to show elevated liver enzymes than people from other ethnic groups, and 73.7% of those with elevated enzymes carry a specific genetic variant called ABCG2 rs2231142.
Women taking atorvastatin experience statin-associated muscle symptoms 1.8 times more often than men, regardless of genetic differences.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.