Cardiovascular pharmacogenomics; state of current knowledge and implementation in practice

- Clinical implementation of PGx of CV medications is not as expected.
- Currently, data for clopidogrel, warfarin and simvastatin are sufficiently robust.
- For others, existing PGx data need to be confirmed in the clinical trials.

Pharmacogenomics (PGx) is the science that examines how an individual's genetic make-up affects the safety and efficacy of therapeutic drugs. PGx of response to cardiovascular (CV) medications is of the most successfully translated branches of PGx into the clinical workout. However, the clinical implementation of PGx of CV drugs is yet far beyond the growth of our understanding of the role of genetics in drug therapy. A considerable amount of efforts have been devoted by the regulatory agents like the food and drug administration (FDA) as well as the expert-based networks such as the Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) to overcome the existing barriers. This has been done, at least in part, for some of the most widely prescribed CV drugs, including clopidogrel, warfarin and simvastatin for which the PGx knowledge have been satisfactorily robust to provoke the CPIC to issue the guidelines for these drugs and the FDA to update the drugs' labeling, both strongly recommended the use of genotype-guided dosing for these medications, provided that the genetic data are available. For other drugs, however, studies have produced contradictory results and further large and well-designed clinical trials are required to expand and confirm the clinical utility of their PGx data. This review paper presents the current state of knowledge in the field of PGx of CV medications and describes the facilities assisting to the translation of PGx data into the clinical practice. Afterward, the existing body of PGx literature of the most-commonly used CV medications is comprehensively discussed.