Statins' immunomodulatory potential against Th17 cell-mediated autoimmune response.

Statins' recently discovered anti-inflammatory effects place them at the forefront of the new therapies for chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases. Our recent study demonstrated that simvastatin exerts an independent immunomodulatory effect on the human monocytes and CD4+ cells. In addition to the statin-mediated effect on the monocyte cytokine production, which regulates Th17 cell differentiation, simvastatin directly inhibits IL-17 production in CD4+ cells, which may collectively inhibit the autoimmune response in multiple sclerosis (MS), a central nervous system (CNS) inflammatory demyelinating disease.