Investigating the Relationship Between Statins and Bacterial Skin Infections

Abstract

Statins are extensively prescribed medicines to reduce cholesterol for cardioprotection, but they also exhibit antimicrobial and pleiotropic effects, which plausibly reduces both skin infection risks and antimicrobial resistance. Adopting a bench-to-bedside framework, the results of laboratory experiments (identifying suitable statins as topical antibiotics and postulating a mechanism of antibacterial action) and clinical evidence (via prescription sequence symmetry analysis and a retrospective case-control study) were reconciled to determine if prior statin use translated into beneficial outcomes.