Pharmacogenetics of antihypertensive drug response.

Pharmacogenetics is a discipline of molecular medicine that investigates the genetic basis of individual variation of drug responses. Before the era of the human genome project and the subsequent progress in genomic research, this field was primarily restricted to the investigation of the genetics of drug-metabolizing enzymes as they account for individual differences in pharmacokinetics and tolerability of drugs. In the current genomic era, pharmacogenetic research is applied to all fields of drug treatment in clinical medicine, including hypertension research. In contrast to the traditional approach, however, the influence of individual genetic variation on the efficacy of a drug (ie, the pharmacodynamic response) is the major focus of pharmacogenetic research and its clinical applicability. Therefore, the identification of individual genetic variation influencing the blood pressure-lowering effect of an antihypertensive compound and the implementation of this knowledge into clinical practice is the major goal of pharmacogenetic research in the field of hypertension. In this article, some important, recent research work and progress on the pharmacogenetics of antihypertensive drug responses are reviewed and evaluated.