This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.
Statin plus antibiotic may increase cataract risk, studies indicate
Click Here to Manage Email Alerts
KIRKSVILLE, Mo. — Use of an antibiotic in combination with a common cholesterol-lowering drug may significantly increase the risk of cataract development, according to both laboratory and population-based research.
A recently published study in rats may support a previous study that found taking cholesterol-lowering drugs in combination with agents that slow the metabolism of statins in the body, such as erythromycin, could increase the risk of cataract development.
Richard J. Cenedella and colleagues at the Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine, located here, reported in the Journal of Lipid Research that a certain strain of rats treated for 14 days with simvastatin caused the rats to develop cataracts rapidly.
According to the report, this particular strain of rats has a genetic defect affecting the control of hydroxymethyl glutaryl coenzyme A (HMG CoA) synthesis. While sterol synthesis markedly increased in the other rat strains, sterol synthesis remained at baseline levels in these rats. This may be due to inadequate upregulation HMG CoA synthesis in the lens, the authors speculated. Upregulation of the sterol pathway may result in increased isoprene-derived anti-inflammatory substance formation, they posited.
"Failure to up-regulate the pathway in the CT rat lenses may reflect an attenuated compensatory response to injury that resulted in cataracts," the authors said.
The laboratory research supports an earlier population-based case-control analysis by Raymond G. Schlienger, PhD, and colleagues. That study, published in the Sept. 2001 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, found long-term use of a statin at therapeutic dose levels did not increase the risk of cataract -- unless erythromycin was used concomitantly. Erythromycin is known to significantly increase the systemic bioavailability of statins.
In the study, people taking both simvastatin and erythromycin had as much as three times the risk of cataract development as those not taking both drugs.