The PHArmacogenomic Study of Statins in the Elderly at risk for cardiovascular disease (PHASE)

The PHArmacogenomic Study of Statins in the Elderly at risk for cardiovascular disease (PHASE) is a genome-wide association study (GWAS) performed in the participants of the PROspective Study of Pravastatin in the Elderly at Risk (PROSPER), a large prospective European multi-national placebo-controlled randomized clinical trial with 5804 participants.

 With the GWAS in PHASE (EU project PI Prof.  J.W. Jukema, dept of Cardiology, LUMC, project leader Dr Stella Trompet) we will establish which genetic variation is responsible for the variation in response to statin therapy. New variation in the genes will be discovered that will lead to improvements in the use of drug therapy, through selection of the most appropriate drug based on an individual’s genetic make-up.

At this moment Iris Postmus, Phd-student at the department of Gerontology and Geriatrics, and Stella Trompet, Post-Doc at the department of Cardiology are collaborating with the PHASE project in the Genomic Investigation of Statin Therapy (GIST) consortium. In this consortium of 7 large randomized controlled clinical trials a meta-analysis will be performed to investigate the genetic variation associated with variability in statin response.

In collaboration with the CHARGE consortium, the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology, the PHASE study investigates the genetic background of various traits. Examples of these traits are hemostatic measurements, various pharmacogenetic interaction analysis, inflammatory markers, cancer, and blood pressure phenotypes.

PHASE has received funding from the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme (FP7/2007-2013) under grant agreement n° HEALTH-F2-2009-223004.