From Fleming to Endo: The discovery of statins

Abstract

Statins are now one of the most prescribed drugs in the world and have made a major impact to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease, thereby extending the lives of millions of people across the world. The scientist responsible for the discovery of the first statin, Professor Akira Endo, was recently honoured for his 'exceptional contribution to cardiovascular medicine' by award of the European Society of Cardiology Gold Medal in 2021. Inspired by the work of Sir Alexander Fleming as a young scientist, Professor Endo pursued a long research career focusing on fungal enzymes and their potential use in medicine; a journey that eventually led him to the discovery of statins.

Figure 1.. Professor Akira Endo & Sir Alexander Fleming.

Akira Endo courtesy of WikiMedia and reproduced under CC BY 4.0 license. Alexander Fleming courtesy of Imperial War Museum and reproduced under their IWM Non Commercial Licence.

Figure 2.. Penicillium citrinum, Aspergillus terreus and Monascus ruber.

(Reproduced with permission by Yuri from Fun With Microbiology (What’s Buggin’ You?) http://thunderhouse4-yuri.blogspot.com/2015/08/penicillium-citrinum.html).

Figure 3.. Chemical structure of natural, semi-synthetic, and synthetic statins.

Reproduced under CC BY licence from J. Fungi 2016, 2(2), 13; https://doi.org/10.3390/jof2020013.