STOCKHOLM, July 23: Cholesterol-busting drugs, widely used to reduce the risk of heart attack, may also help cut the incidence of Alzheimer’s disease, scientists said on Tuesday.

Three new studies presented at an international Alzheimer’s meeting underlined an apparent link between the use of best-selling cholesterol drugs, known as statins, and a reduced risk of developing the degenerative brain disorder.

Dr Robert Green and colleagues at Boston University School of Medicine found that individuals taking statins to lower cholesterol reduced their risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 29 per cent.

The 2,378-patient study was the largest to date exploring the links between the disease and statins, use of which has grown rapidly in recent years, led by products such as Pfizer Inc’s Lipitor and Merck & Co Inc’s Zocor.

The reason for the connection is not immediately clear, but Brain Austen of St George’s Hospital Medical School in London thinks he may have part of the answer.

Using laboratory cell cultures, Austen and his colleagues found that statins dramatically lowered the production of beta-amyloid, the protein “plaque” that clumps together in the brains of Alzheimer’s sufferers.

His work was echoed in findings presented at conference on Alzheimer’s in Tokyo. —Reuters