Giving millions of patients already taking statins a new type of drug could slash their heart disease risk even further, research suggests.
Scientists claim pills that are currently under development, called lipoprotein lipase (LPL) enhancers, could prevent thousands of heart attacks.
And their study also showed the drugs – which work by lowering levels of fats in the blood – could also slash the risk of type 2 diabetes.
Cambridge University researchers tested the effects of LPL enhancers using genetic data of around 400,000 people.
Scientists claim pills that are currently under development, called lipoprotein lipase (LPL) enhancers, could prevent thousands of heart attacks
Such experiments are used to mimic the effects of a clinical trial, tests of the safety and effectiveness of drugs before they are mass marketed.
Thousands of people with a variation in their DNA that boosts the effectiveness of LPL to levels expected in patients taking the drugs were analysed.
Others with a genetic twist that protects them against high levels of LDL cholesterol – mimicking the effect of statins – were also monitored.
Heart disease risk between patients with both DNA variations, just one, or neither were measured for the trial.
The researchers, led by Dr Luca Lotta, found patients with both had a lower risk of heart disease than those with just one or none.
And they discovered those who were born with LPL gene variants had a lower risk of type 2 diabetes when taking statins.
Statins have been shown to cause the condition. An estimated 100 per 10,000 patients on the cheap pills will develop type 2 diabetes.
Up to six million adults in Britain currently take the cheap pills to lower their LDL cholesterol levels and thereby reduce the risk of heart attacks and strokes.
However, some patients treated with statins will still encounter heart attacks, which is thought to be down to raised levels of triglycerides in their blood.
Normally, the body can break down triglycerides – fats in the blood – with LPL.
But the jury is still out on whether this could slash the risk of heart disease – the world’s leading killer – because little data exists on their efficacy.
The findings of LPL enhancers, currently at various stages of laboratory development, were published in JAMA Cardiology.
Dr Lotta, of the Medical Research Council’s Epidemiology Unit at Cambridge, said: ‘Our study suggests these new triglyceride-lowering agents could give additional benefits to patients with heart disease when added to statins.
‘This combination could prevent more heart attacks as well as reduce the risk of developing type 2 diabetes.’
He added: ‘Studies that simulate clinical trials are invaluable because large-scale trials are expensive, take years to conduct and considerable resources
‘Scientists need strong evidence of a drug’s likelihood of success before it gets to the trial stage.’
High levels of LDL-C, known as bad cholesterol, has been considered a major cause of heart disease – the world’s leading killer – for at least 50 years.
But a row has erupted in recent years over the safety and effectiveness of statins, with a group of 17 skeptics urging doctors to ‘abandon’ them earlier this week.
Supporters, including the health watchdog Nice, say the pills should be prescribed more widely to prevent thousands of early deaths.
But many medics are uneasy with the ‘overmedicalisation’ of the middle-aged, which sees statins doled out ‘just in case’ patients have heart problems in later life.
Yet they do agree that for high risk patients, such as heart attack victims, statins are proven lifesavers, slashing the chance of a second attack.