Statins are very effective for lowering low-density lipoprotein cholesterol for primary and secondary cardiovascular disease prevention. While statins are usually well tolerated, individual response to statin therapy varies and intolerance, predominantly muscle symptoms, may appear in a significant proportion of patients. Besides clinical factors, variation in genes coding for proteins with drug transporting, immune or enzymatic function have been implicated in the pathogenesis of statin intolerance. In this review, we will characterise the candidate gene variants for development of statin intolerance, describe their population distribution and summarise current knowledge on their biological plausibility. Clinical relevance and current guidelines/recommendations will be also discussed.By analogy to individual nature of patients´ response to treatment [8][9][10] there are also interindividual differences in occurrence and extent of statin intolerance and its symptoms. The knowledge of the risk factors predisposing for intolerance development including characteristic genetic background is crucial for its understanding and prevention. In this chapter we will review the polymorphic gene variants implicated in development of statin intolerance, briefly describe their biological plausibility and characterise clinical relevance.
Statin intoleranceStatin intolerance is the inability to tolerate sufficient dose of statin needed to reduce cardiovascular risk due to side effects or intolerance to treatment [11]. The most frequent are muscle symptoms characterised bellow.
Statin-associated muscle symptomsStatin-induced muscle symptoms range from myalgia to mild or severe myopathy and even to rare rhabdomyolysis [12]. The symptoms appear in about 75% in the first 10-12 weeks and in 90% of cases in the first 6 months after treatment initiation or dose up titration [13]. The true frequency muscle related side effects has been widely debated: while an observational study reported as much as about 20% of patients on statins [14], clinical trial data suggests frequencies to be equal or lower than 5% [15], however there was a study reporting that clinical trials did not use a standard definition for statin myalgia [16], which may result in underestimated occurrence of statin-induced muscle symptoms. In any case, given very high usage of statins (the third most frequently prescribed drug), even lower relative frequency numbers would mean substantial absolute number of symptomatic patients.
Clinical-related risk factorsThe available data shows that the side effects of statin therapy are group-dependent, timedependent and dose-dependent; their frequency is greater at a higher statin dose [17].Endogenous factors known to increase occurrence of side effects are as follows: another lipid-lowering therapy, alcohol abuse, surgery, heavy exercise. Importantly, interactions with medication may be serious [18]; particularly drug interactions likely contribute the susceptibility to statin related muscle symptoms [19].Further factors predisposi...