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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2009 Jun 9.
Published in final edited form as: Annu Rev Pharmacol Toxicol. 2005;45:89–118. doi: 10.1146/annurev.pharmtox.45.120403.095748

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Structural basis of HMG-CoA reductase inhibition by statins. The active forms of statins resemble the cholesterol precursor, HMG-CoA (right panels). All statins share the HMG-like moiety and competitively inhibit the reductase by the similar mechanism but have distinct pharmacologic and pharmacodynamic properties related to their chemical structures (left panels, ball and stick graphs: black, carbon; red, oxygen; light blue, hydrogen; dark blue, nitrogen).