Pleiotropy (drugs) Pleiotropy (drugs) In pharmacology, pleiotropy includes all of a drug's actions other than those for which the agent was specifically developed. It may include adverse effects which are detrimental ones, but is often used to denote additional beneficial effects. For example, statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors that primarily act by decreasing cholesterol synthesis, but which are believed to have other beneficial effects, including acting as antioxidants and stabilizing atherosclerotic plaques. Steroid drugs, such as prednisone and prednisolone, have pleiotropic effects, including systemic ones, for the same reason that endogenous steroid hormones do too: cells throughout the body have receptors that
Discovery and development of statins Asp and the O5 hydroxyl group of the hydroxyglutartic acid component of the statins. Van der Waals interactions are formed between the hydrophobic side chains of the enzyme, which involve the Leu, Val, Leu, Ala and Leu and the statins. Type 2 statins form polar interaction between the fluorine atom on the fluorophenyl group and the guanidinium group of Arg. In addition to these interactions atorvastatin and rosuvastatin also form unique hydrogen bonds between Ser residue and either a carbonyl oxygen atom (atorvastatin) or a sulfone oxygen atom (rosuvastatin). A unique polar interaction between the Arg side chain and the