Regardless of practice setting, it is imperative that pharmacists be able to either participate in generating new knowledge or use the ever-expanding body of literature to guide patient care. However, competing priorities in Pharm.D. curricula and residency training programs have resulted in limited emphasis on acquiring research and scholarly skills. Factors likely contributing to this reduced focus include the lack of curricular and postgraduate training standards emphasizing the development of research skills, time to commit to scholarly activity, and accessibility to experienced mentors. Strategies for increasing scholarly activity for pharmacy students and residents should therefore continue to be a focus of professional degree and residency training programs. Several resources are available for academic planners, program directors, and institutions to augment scholarly experience for pharmacy trainees and clinicians. This commentary highlights the importance of providing research opportunities for students and residents, describes the potential barriers to these activities, and provides recommendations on how to increase the instruction and mentoring of trainees to generate and use research.

Available data suggest that omeprazole is the PPI most likely to have a significant interaction with clopidogrel. Further studies are needed to determine that an interaction between the other PPIs and clopidogrel does not exist. In situations in which both clopidogrel and a PPI are indicated, pantoprazole should be used since it is the PPI least likely to interact with clopidogrel.

This is the first report on the impact of in vivo administration of a P2Y12 antagonist on coated-platelet formation. The significance of a partial attenuation in coated-platelet potential has yet to be determined, but this could represent a new antithrombotic mechanism of clopidogrel beyond inhibition of ADP-induced aggregation.

Antiplatelet agents are the cornerstone of treatment for patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Clopidogrel, when added to aspirin, has demonstrated considerable success at reducing thrombotic complications of ACS and/or PCI compared to aspirin alone and is standard of care for the management of patients with ACS and in patients undergoing PCI. Prasugrel is a novel thienopyridine antiplatelet agent recently approved for the treatment of patients with ACS undergoing PCI. Prasugrel provides greater and more consistent platelet inhibition than clopidogrel due to earlier and more extensive formation of its active metabolite. The enhanced platelet inhibition with prasugrel led to a reduction in major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with moderate to high risk ACS scheduled for PCI in the phase 3 TRITON-TIMI 38 trial. This benefit was seen more in patients suffering a STEMI and those with diabetes. However, this reduction in events was met with a significant increase in the risk of bleeding which overcame prasugrel’s benefit in certain groups. Future studies with prasugrel are needed to determine its optimal utilization to minimize bleeding risks and evaluate its outcomes in ACS and safety profile in special patient populations.

Aspirin-induced platelet inhibition may be more potent following bariatric surgery. The mechanisms behind this improvement require further investigation.

Obesity is an independent risk factor for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality due to atherothrombotic events and represents a group of patients who are in need of optimized antithrombotic therapy. Central to the obesity-related risk of atherothrombosis is a pro-thrombotic state characterized by increased levels of coagulation factors, impaired fibrinolysis, and platelet hyper-reactivity, which results from the interaction among the features clustering in obesity: insulin resistance, inflammation, oxidative stress, and endothelial dysfunction. Aspirin is a cornerstone antiplatelet drug that has substantial interpatient variability in pharmacodynamic response and a number of reports have demonstrated that obesity is a risk factor for a reduced aspirin pharmacodynamic response. The inflammatory state associated with obesity, particularly a metabolic endotoxemia, may set in motion a number of mechanisms that increase platelet reactivity and platelet turnover and decrease aspirin bioavailability, all contributing to a poor aspirin response. A greater understanding of the mechanisms underlying obesity-related high on-aspirin platelet reactivity will help in optimization of antithrombotic therapy in this patient population.

P2Y(12) inhibitors were introduced clinically as effective inhibitors of adenosine-5'-diphosphate (ADP) mediated platelet activation and aggregation. This class of pharmacological agents has enjoyed considerable success. Cangrelor is a recently developed P2Y(12) inhibitor that has the advantage of being an active drug not requiring metabolic conversion, although it is not orally available. Coated-platelets are a subclass of activated platelets generated on dual agonist activation with collagen plus thrombin; the primary hallmark of coated-platelets is their ability to support prothrombinase activity. Interestingly, we recently observed that the relatively weak agonist ADP potentiates the production of coated-platelets by the very strong agonists collagen plus thrombin, a previously unknown role for ADP. The authors sought in this study to determine if P2Y(12) inhibitors, such as cangrelor, were capable of attenuating this augmentation of coated-platelet generation. Cangrelor, at physiologically relevant concentrations, was able to eliminate the ADP-dependent increase in coated-platelet production with an IC(50) of 1.4 nM. Cangrelor, however, had no effect on thrombin-dependent platelet activation as measured by P-selectin expression. Although this in vitro study does not address the question of whether the effectiveness of cangrelor in vivo is partially due to an attenuation of coated-platelet production in addition to its documented antiaggregatory effects, it does reveal an unexpected action of cangrelor. Additional studies will be required to determine if all P2Y(12) inhibitors are equally effective in attenuating coated-platelet production.

Aspirin is a cornerstone of therapy in the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). However, dual antiplatelet therapy reduces the risk of stent thrombosis and cardiovascular events compared with aspirin alone in the treatment of patients with ACS. Recently, there has been debate as to which antiplatelet agent should be added to aspirin in the ACS treatment regimen. This review summarizes the pharmacologic and clinical data comparing clopidogrel, prasugrel, and ticagrelor, and provides a practical guide to clinicians for determining which antiplatelet to use for patients with ACS.