Statins inhibit HMG-CoA reductase to reduce cholesterol synthesis and upregulate SREBP-2 to increase LDL receptors.

“the direct mechanism is that they inhibit hmg-coa reductase which is an enzyme that catalyzes one of the early steps if not the first step I believe of cholesterol synthesis so if you're making less cholesterol you would have less cholesterol there would be less cholesterol to carry around you could require fewer lipoproteins but that's not really the main way it works the main way it works is that the liver in response to the statin up regulates something called SR EBP - and when that thing gets up regulated it puts more LDL receptors on the surface of the liver”