What is "mevastatin"

n. A statin, produced by the mould ''Penicillium citrinum'', used in the production of pravastatin

Mevastatin (compactin, ML-236B) is a hypolipidemic agent that belongs to the statins class.

It was isolated from the mold Penicillium citrinum by Akira Endo in the 1970s, and he identified it as a HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, i.e., a statin. Mevastatin might be considered the first statin drug; clinical trials on mevastatin were performed in the late 1970s in Japan, but it was never marketed. The first statin drug available to the general public was lovastatin.

Mevastatin has since been derivatized to the compound pravastatin, which is a pharmaceutical used the in lowering cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular disease.

In vitro, it has antiproliferative properties.

A British group isolated the same compound from Penicillium brevicompactum, named it compactin, and published their results in 1976. The British group mentions antifungal properties with no mention of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition.

High doses inhibit growth and proliferation of melanoma cells.