Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a complex disease associated with gene-gene or gene-environment interactions. The incidence of idiopathic CP has shown an increasing trend, withits phenotypeshaving changed considerably in the last two decades. The diseaseitself can be regulated before it reaches the stage of established CP; however, the etiopathogenesis underlying idiopathic CP remains to be established, making the condition difficult to cure. Unfortunately, there also remains a lack of consensus regarding the beneficial effects of
antioxidant therapiesfor CP. It is known that
antioxidant therapy does not reduce inflammatory and fibrotic
cytokines, making it unlikely that they could modulate the disease process. Although
antioxidants are safe, very few studies to date have reported the long-term beneficial effects in patients with CP. Thus, studies are being performed to identify drugs that can improve symptoms and alter the natural history of CP.
Statins, with their numerous pleiotropic effects, may play a role in the treatment of CP,
butin 2006, their use was found to be associated with the undesirable side effect of promoting
pancreatitis. Latter studies showed favourable effects of
statins in CP, highlighting the particular benefits of lipophilic
statins, such as
lovastatin and
simvastatin, over the hydrophilic
statins, such as
rosuvastatin. Ultimately, studies to repurpose
N-acetylcysteine as a CP
therapy areyielding very promising results.