{"id":71638,"date":"2024-06-12T22:57:07","date_gmt":"2024-06-12T22:57:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/akira-endo-scholar-of-statins-that-reduce-heart-disease-dies-at-90\/"},"modified":"2024-06-12T22:57:07","modified_gmt":"2024-06-12T22:57:07","slug":"akira-endo-scholar-of-statins-that-reduce-heart-disease-dies-at-90","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/06\/12\/akira-endo-scholar-of-statins-that-reduce-heart-disease-dies-at-90\/","title":{"rendered":"Akira Endo, Scholar of Statins That Reduce Heart Disease, Dies at 90"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Akira Endo, a Japanese biochemist whose research on fungi helped to lay the groundwork for widely prescribed drugs that lower a type of cholesterol that contributes to heart disease, died on June 5. He was 90.<\/p>\n

Chiba Kazuhiro, the president of Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, where Dr. Endo was a professor emeritus, confirmed the death in a statement<\/a>. The statement did not give a cause or say where he died.<\/p>\n

Cholesterol, mostly made in the liver, has important functions in the body. It is also a major contributor to coronary artery disease, a leading cause of death in the United States<\/a>, Japan and many other countries.<\/p>\n

In the early 1970s, Dr. Endo grew fungi in an effort to find a natural substance that could block a crucial enzyme that is part of the production of cholesterol. Some scientists worried that doing so might threaten cholesterol\u2019s positive functions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n