Lovastatin and fluvastatin reduce viremia and the pro-inflammatory cytokines in the patients with chronic hepatitis C.

Backgrounds/aims: Certain statins interfere with the mechanism of the hepatitis C virus replication. We aimed at studying the effect of statins on the level of viremia and of the pro-and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the patients with chronic hepatitis C.
Methodology: We took in our study all the patients with chronic hepatitis C placed in the evidence of the clinics of internal medicine of the Emergency County Clinical Hospitals of Braşov, Oradea and Sibiu, who had been identified with viremias. The patients were treated with fluvastatin 40 mg/day or lovastatin 20 mg/day for 28 days. The level of viremia, hemoleukogram, hepatic biochemical tests and the pro and anti-inflammatory hepatic cytokines were analysed before and after the treatment. The final results were compared with the initial ones, as well as between the 2 groups.
Results: Regarding those 99 analysed patients, the initial average viremia was of 2376074 +/- 3427596 UI/ml, while the final one was of 1321136 +/- 1343570 UI/ml (p = 0.000987). Both, in the group treated with lovastatin, as well as in that treated with fluvastatin, the decrease of viremia was significant from the statistics point of view (p = 0.032, respectively p = 0.00092). Lovastatin administration resulted in the significant decrease of the pro-inflammatory cytokines IL-6 and TNF-alfa, while that of fluvastatin brought about the significant decrease of the serum levels of IL-6, IL-8 and TNF-alfa. There were no significant differences, statistically speaking, between the 2 determinations, regarding the levels of IL-10 (anti-inflammatory cytokine) and those of erythropoietin. Transaminases average level did not vary significantly after those 4 weeks of statins treatment.
Conclusions: Lovastatin and fluvastatin, significantly decrease the level of viremia, of IL-6 and TNF-alpha in the patients with chronic hepatitis C.