Cardiovascular Drugs: Statin Dose-Response Lab

Cardiovascular pharmacotherapy spans antihypertensives, antiarrhythmics, anticoagulants, statins and thrombolytics, but they share the same underlying logic: a dose becomes a plasma concentration, and that concentration is converted into a biological effect through a saturating dose-response relationship. This lab models that chain explicitly for statins, the drug class used to lower LDL cholesterol and cardiovascular risk. A one-compartment oral pharmacokinetic model tracks how each daily dose is absorbed and cleared; a Hill equation converts the resulting plasma concentration into fractional inhibition of HMG-CoA reductase, the liver enzyme that makes cholesterol; and a first-order kinetic model lets circulating LDL-C drift toward a new steady state as synthesis slows. Watch cholesterol particles stream from the liver into the bloodstream, and see the LDL-C curve fall over simulated days as the statin, dose, and patient metabolism you choose take effect.