STATINS: CHEMISTRY, ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES, BIOSYNTHESIS AND PHARMACOKINETICS

Background: Statins show mainly a hypochlosterolemic effect but also present additional biological actions such as anti-inflammatory and immune-modulator, antioxidant activity, reduction of the incidence of some types of cancer, beneficial effects on bone metabolism, as well as in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, and AIDS. They are divided in two types; natural statins and synthetic statins, which arise from the need of increasing the effect of the former ones. These properties have encouraged researches to aim at the comprehension of their chemical behavior and physical-chemical properties, as well as the comprehension of the relationship between their structures and the activities aforementioned. This study has allowed the development of efficient analytic techniques both for their determination in different matrices and the optimization of the obtaining process, separation, quantification and structural elucidation, as well as to examine in depth the raising of biosynthetic routes, which will give tools that enable to intervene through biotechnology in the biosynthetic processes, searching for the increase of its production by a specific organism. Objectives: The purpose of this work is to present a review of chemistry, biosynthesis, pharmacopeia and analytic techniques with the aim of quickly contribute to the knowledge of the ones performing researches on these metabolites. Methods: This review approaches the last 12 years and was carried out by performing the selection of the most relevant researches that allow knowing the statins chemistry, structural variations, the analytic techniques used for their determination, and their biosynthetic routes as well. Likewise, it was intended to cover a general knowledge of their biological, pharmacological, and pharmacokinetic aspects, topics closely related with their structural differences. Results: A general approach of the main aspects for the study of statins is obtained. This allows selecting the parameters according to the required by different researchers on this area. Conclusions: The identification of statins requires of different obtaining and separation processes, being SOE and HPLC the most used, respectively. Their biological actions are closely related with their structure. Studies on toxicity in mammals have demonstrated that there is no evidence of cancerogenic, mutagenic, and toxic effects.