Effect Of Pravastatin On Proliferation And Expression Of Cyclooxygenase-2 Protein In Cultured Colorectal Cancer Cells

Background and Objective Colorectal cancer is a common neoplasm with high death rate for a long time. There is an obvious increase of its morbidity in most countries all over the world in twenty years. There is the same tendency in China. With more attention to early discovery and diagnosis, the death rate of colorectal cancer have been decreased, yet we still have lots of trouble in treating it, especially when facing advanced colorectal cancer. Finding new and effective methods to decrease its occurrence and death rate is badly needed.3-Hydroxy-3-methylgutaryl CoA reductase inhibitors, commonly referred to as the statins, are a class of drugs that inhibits the rate-limiting step of the mevalonate pathway, essential for the synthesis of various compounds, including cholesterol. The statins have emerged as the dominant class of compounds for the treatment of hypercholesterolemia. Among them, lovastatin, pravastatin, simvastatin, fluvastatin, cerivastatin and atorvastatin are currently commercially available. Recently, there are emerging interests in their use as anticancer agents based on preclinical evidence of their antiproliferative, proapoptotic, anti-invasive, and radiosensitizing properties. Inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylgutaryl CoA reductase by the statins interferes with the rate-limiting step of the mevalonate pathway, leading to reduced levels of mevalonate and its downstream products, many of which play important roles in critical cellular functions such as membrane integrity, cell signaling, protein synthesis, and cell cycle progression. Perturbations of these processes in neoplastic cells by the...