Cholesterol and Pharmacogenetic Study

Despite widespread use of statin therapy for reducing risk of cardiovascular disease risk, there is considerable inter-individual variation in statin efficacy, and it would be desirable to identify markers that would be predictive of the magnitude of beneficial response. The effect of statin most strongly associated with improved clinical outcomes is reduction in LDL cholesterol. The CAP study was a six week non-randomized, open label study of simvastatin 40 mg/day in a group of 335 African-American and 609 Caucasian volunteer subjects. Measurements of plasma lipids and lipoproteins, as well as other markers of cardiovascular disease risk, were obtained at the screening and entry visits, and after four and six weeks of simvastatin treatment. Both baseline measurements and changes in response to simvastatin therapy are being used to test for associations with genetic polymorphisms. Significant findings are being replicated in other study cohorts.