Evidence map›Paper›PMID 29036837›Full record

Trial reportJournal of Parkinson's disease2017

Simvastatin as a Potential Disease-Modifying Therapy for Patients with Parkinson's Disease: Rationale for Clinical Trial, and Current Progress.

Camille B Carroll, Richard K H Wyse

Open access · bronzeAbstract readClinical Trial, Phase IIMulticenter StudyRandomized Controlled Trial
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Trial report in Journal of Parkinson's disease, 2017. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 39 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
39citing papers in PubMed, 1 pooled it
3.6field-weighted citation impact, top 6% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

39 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 71 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Pooled it
  2. Trial
  3. Trial
  4. Article
  5. Neuroprotection in Parkinson Disease.Neurology and therapy · 2025
    Review
  6. Article
  7. Review
  8. Review
  9. Article
  10. Review
  11. Review
  12. Review
  13. Review
  14. Review
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  17. Review
  18. Pleotropic effects of statins: the dilemma of wider utilization of statin.The Egyptian heart journal : (EHJ) : official bulletin of the Egyptian Society of Cardiology · 2023
    Review
  19. Review
  20. Nurr1 Modulation Mediates Neuroprotective Effects of Statins.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2022
    Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

Camille B CarrollPlymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry, Plymouth, UK.
Richard K H WyseThe Cure Parkinson's Trust, London, UK.
Cure Parkinson's Trust · GBPeninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Many now believe the holy grail for the next stage of therapeutic advance surrounds the development of disease-modifying approaches aimed at intercepting the year-on-year neurodegenerative decline experienced by most patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Based on recommendations of an international committee of experts who are currently bringing multiple, potentially disease-modifying, PD therapeutics into long-term neuroprotective PD trials, a clinical trial involving 198 patients is underway to determine whether Simvastatin provides protection against chronic neurodegeneration. Statins are widely used to reduce cardiovascular risk, and act as competitive inhibitors of HMG-CoA reductase. It is also known that statins serve as ligands for PPARα, a known arbiter for mitochondrial size and number. Statins possess multiple cholesterol-independent biochemical mechanisms of action, many of which offer neuroprotective potential (suppression of proinflammatory molecules & microglial activation, stimulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, inhibition of oxidative stress, attenuation of α-synuclein aggregation, modulation of adaptive immunity, and increased expression of neurotrophic factors). We describe the biochemical, physiological and pharmaceutical credentials that continue to underpin the rationale for taking Simvastatin into a disease-modifying trial in PD patients. While unrelated to the Simvastatin trial (because this conducted in patients who already have PD), we discuss conflicting epidemiological studies which variously suggest that statin use for cardiovascular prophylaxis may increase or decrease risk of developing PD. Finally, since so few disease-modifying PD trials have ever been launched (compared to those of symptomatic therapies), we discuss the rationale of the trial structure we have adopted, decisions made, and lessons learnt so far.

Indexed as

Administration, OralDose-Response Relationship, DrugDouble-Blind MethodFemaleFollow-Up StudiesHumansHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsMaleMental Status ScheduleNeurodegenerative DiseasesNeuropsychological TestsParkinson DiseaseSimvastatinHydroxymethylglutaryl-CoA Reductase InhibitorsSimvastatinclinical trialdisease modificationParkinson’s diseaseSimvastatin

Identifiers

PMID29036837
PMCPMC5676977
OpenAlexW2761444447

What Socratic holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY-NC
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.