Cardiovascular disease pharmacogenomics

Abstract

Cardiovascular disease (CVD), commonly known as heart disease, is the leading cause of death all over the world. Nearly one in four deaths worldwide is attributed to CVD. Generally, CVD constitutes a number of overlapping structural and functional irregularities in the heart and blood vessels, which together constitute the cardiovascular system. Given this, the corresponding drugs also either can treat or prevent these overlapping conditions. Often, more than one drug is prescribed to treat a medical condition, since one medication alone cannot remedy the problem. High mortality and morbidity due to CVD automatically requires physicians to treat CVD aggressively, leading to adverse drug reactions. Still, some patients do not respond positively even if the strongest recommended drug dosage is administered. Research in the CVD field has demonstrated linkage between gene variation and the severity of diseases such as blood cholesterol level or blood pressure. Correspondingly, research over more than three decades has established the linkage of genetic variation with the efficacy of CVD treatment in the cohorts of different CVD disease types. In this chapter, recent advances in the field of cardiovascular pharmacoge-netics and pharmacogenomics are summarized.