Cholesterol synthesis pathway
Mevalonate pathway
Also searched as Mevalonate pathway.
This is why statins deplete CoQ10. Blocking hmg-CoA reductase lowers cholesterol and everything else built from the same branch point. The effect is mechanistic and unavoidable, not a side effect in the incidental sense.
In depth
The pathway that builds cholesterol — and, from the same intermediates, CoQ10, dolichol and prenylated proteins.
What drives it
Central fuel molecule increases it.
The pathway starts from acetyl-CoA. Carried by the intermediary-metabolism and clinical reviews. doi 10.1016/j.molmet.2023.101755 · PMC9967593
What it drives
It increases Lowers cholesterol.
Endogenous cholesterol synthesis. Carried by the intermediary-metabolism and clinical reviews. doi 10.1016/j.molmet.2023.101755 · PMC9967593
It increases Electron carrier.
One precursor, two products - this is why statins deplete CoQ10. Blocking HMG-CoA reductase lowers cholesterol and everything else built from the same branch point. Mechanistic and unavoidable. Carried by the intermediary-metabolism and clinical reviews (PMC9967593; doi 10.1016/j.molmet.2023.101755; PMC12293478; PMC7005133). Verbatim: “Statins block the production of farnesyl pyrophosphate, an intermediate in the mevalonate pathway, which is responsible for the production of coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10)”. doi 10.1016/j.molmet.2023.101755 · PMID 30032220 · PMC9967593
Blends that modulate it
Each blend page names this pathway and carries the study behind its claim.
See it on the map
Open the causal map to follow this pathway upstream and downstream, arrow by arrow, each with its study.