Statins activate temperature-gated transient receptor potential ion channels

Statins are HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors administered to decrease levels of LDL cholesterol and to lower the risk of cardiovascular disease. Although statins are relatively well tolerated, adverse effects such as myalgia and painful peripheral neuropathy have been reported. While the underlying cause has not been fully elucidated, accumulating evidence shows that statins have numerous pleiotropic effects including anti-inflammatory and analgesic actions in several animal pain models. Here we report that some of the most extensively used statins activate members of the temperature-gated transient receptor potential (TRP) ion channel subfamily expressed in heterologous systems. All tested statins (simvastatin, atorvastatin and rosuvastatin) activate human TRPA1 and, in addition, simvastatin activates human TRPV1 and rosuvastatin activates human TRPM8. The activation of TRPV1 by simvastatin is abolished in a capsaicin-insensitive mutant. Furthermore, the sensitivities of both TRPV1 and TRPA1 to simvastatin are diminished in triple cysteine mutants known to exhibit a reduced sensitivity to reactive oxygen species. Rosuvastatin-induced activation of TRPM8 seems to involve an aspartate residue which is essential for sensitivity to the synthetic TRPM8-agonist icilin. In mouse dorsal root ganglion (DRG) neurons, simvastatin activates a subpopulation of neurons which also respond to the TRPV1-agonist capsaicin or the TRPA1-agonist allyl isothiocyanate. In addition, TRPM8 plays an important role for the activation of a small population of DRG neurons by rosuvastatin. Taken together, these results indicate that statins activate thermo-sensitive TRP channels expressed in nociceptive sensory neurons. This property may explain some of the pleiotropic effects of these widely used drugs.