Gene variant's CAD link blasted by study, disputing statin pharmacogenomic test

A new meta-analysis involving tens of thousands of patients challenges the validity of a pharmacogenomic assay marketed as a way to identify patients who might respond especially well to statin therapy, according to its authors and an accompanying editorial.

The study, published online October 6, 2010 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, found no significant relationship between development of clinical coronary artery disease (CAD) and the gene variant Trp719Arg in kinesinlike protein 6 (KIF6) across 19 separate case-control studies.

"These findings do not support the clinical utility of testing for the KIF6 Trp719Arg polymorphism to identify subjects at higher risk of CAD," according to the authors, led by Dr Themistocles L Assimes(Stanford University School of Medicine, CA). And they "indirectly question whether genotype information at this locus can reliably identify a population of subjects most likely to benefit from the use of statins."

Yet there is a body of research suggesting that the variant identifies persons at increased CAD risk and, possibly, predisposition to steep reductions in that risk from statin therapy.