Lovastatin Corrects Excess Protein Synthesis and Prevents Epileptogenesis in a Mouse Model of Fragile X Syndrome

Many neuropsychiatric symptoms of fragile X syndrome (FXS) are believed to be a consequence of altered regulation of protein synthesis at synapses. We discovered that lovastatin, a drug that is widely prescribed for the treatment of high cholesterol, can correct excess hippocampal protein synthesis...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Chuang, Shih-Chieh, Chubykin, Alexander A., Sidorov, Michael, Bianchi, Riccardo, Wong, Robert K.S., Osterweil, Emily, Bear, Mark, Chubykin, Alexander A.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Elsevier 2016
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/102250
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0582-2284
Description
Summary:Many neuropsychiatric symptoms of fragile X syndrome (FXS) are believed to be a consequence of altered regulation of protein synthesis at synapses. We discovered that lovastatin, a drug that is widely prescribed for the treatment of high cholesterol, can correct excess hippocampal protein synthesis in the mouse model of FXS and can prevent one of the robust functional consequences of increased protein synthesis in FXS, epileptogenesis. These data suggest that lovastatin is potentially disease modifying and could be a viable prophylactic treatment for epileptogenesis in FXS.