Pharmacogenetics of statins and metabolic syndrome

Metabolic syndrome is one of the most prevalent conditions in our population. Among components of the syndrome is a major risk factor of cardiovascular diseases - a change in blood lipid profile presented by alterations in cholesterol and triacylglycerol levels. Statins are currently the drug of choice for therapy of dyslipidemia. This group of drugs is characterized by inhibition of cholesterol synthesis in liver. Pharmacogenetics is a progressive field studying interactions between drugs and genetic background of a patient. There has been described a large amount of genetic variants affecting pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic aspects of statin effects. These variants were shown to be important for course of treatment and development of side effects such as statin myopathy. First, this work characterizes pharmacogenetics, metabolic syndrome and statins. Second, it provides a comprehensive summary of genetic polymorphisms underlying important pharmacogenetic interactions with statins