Statin Drugs and Mechanism of action: Statin Drugs: Atorvastatin, Lovastatin, Pravastatin, Simvastatin Statin drugs are used to treat hypercholesterolemia (increase in LDL levels). In hypercholesterolemia, the first line of treatment would be diet and exercise, 2nd is Statin drugs, and 3rd is Ezetimibe. Statin drugs competitively inhibit HMG-CoA, which is an enzyme that catalyzes the synthesis of HMG-CoA in to cholesterol. Therefore, it effectively the synthesis of new cholesterol. It leads to an increase in LDL receptor on Liver cells to take in more LDL, effectively decreasing LDL in the body. 01. Acetyl-CoA 02. Aceto-acetyl-CoA 03. HMG-CoA by the enzyme called HMG-CoA synthase (for synthesis of HMG-CoA) 04. Mevalonate by the enzyme HMG-CoA reductase this is the enzyme that Statin drugs block. 05. Leads to the decrease of cholesterol synthesis. Main side effects of statin drugs are: Myopathy and hepatitis