How a mold helped fight heart disease
From Fleming to Endo: The discovery of statins
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
A smart scientist named Akira Endo looked at molds, like the one that made penicillin, to find a way to lower cholesterol. After testing thousands, he found one that made a medicine called compactin, which led to statins.
Surprising Findings
Compactin worked in humans but failed because of dog data, not human harm.
Most people assume drugs are dropped due to human side effects, but here, a drug that helped patients was abandoned over animal toxicity at extremely high doses.
Practical Takeaways
Understand that statins — one of the most effective heart disease preventions — originated from natural sources like mold.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a healthcare professional. Terms
A smart scientist named Akira Endo looked at molds, like the one that made penicillin, to find a way to lower cholesterol. After testing thousands, he found one that made a medicine called compactin, which led to statins.
Surprising Findings
Compactin worked in humans but failed because of dog data, not human harm.
Most people assume drugs are dropped due to human side effects, but here, a drug that helped patients was abandoned over animal toxicity at extremely high doses.
Practical Takeaways
Understand that statins — one of the most effective heart disease preventions — originated from natural sources like mold.
Publication
Journal
Global Cardiology Science & Practice
Year
2021
Authors
A. Chester, Ahmed El Guindy
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Claims (5)
A type of drug that lowers cholesterol works well in lab tests, but high doses can be toxic in animals, which might slow down its use in people.
A scientist in Japan found the first cholesterol-lowering statin by testing mold from rice — and it changed heart medicine forever.
Lovastatin was the first cholesterol-lowering statin drug. Scientists from Merck and a researcher named Akira Endo found it in different fungi, and it was approved by the FDA in 1987 after tests showed it safely lowered bad cholesterol in people.
A scientist named Akira Endo was inspired by the discovery of penicillin and decided to look at fungi to find new medicines, which eventually helped him discover something that could lower cholesterol.
Some fungi make natural chemicals that might help lower cholesterol and protect your heart — kind of like how statins work, but from mushrooms or molds.