Conditions: Healthy
Keywords: Genetic Determinants of Warfarin Dose Variability
Allocation: NA | Intervention model: SINGLE_GROUP
Enrollment: 35
Healthy volunteers: yes

Brief summary:
The purpose of this study is to determine the importance of genetic differences on individuals' response to warfarin in a group of healthy subjects. Warfarin is also known by the "trade name" Coumadin and is in a class of medications called anticoagulants or "blood thinners." Warfarin works by reducing the blood's ability to make clots. It is used to stop blood clots from forming or growing larger in your blood and blood vessels. Warfarin is prescribed for many conditions, including for people with certain types of irregular heartbeat, people with replacement or mechanical heart valves, people who have suffered a heart attack, people who have had orthopedic surgery, or who have a history of having blood clots. Warfarin is used to prevent or treat deep vein thrombosis (swelling and blood clot in a vein), pulmonary embolism (a blood clot in the lung), and strokes (a blood clot in the brain). Researchers have found that certain genes may affect how a person's body will break down or react to warfarin. If genetic information can help doctors better determine the best dose of warfarin before it is first given, this may help the doctors get patients to the correct levels of blood thinning and thereby reduce the risk of bleeding or the risk of developing a blood clot. The expectation of this study is that this information will ultimately improve warfarin therapy while lessening the risks associated with dosing errors. This study is considered investigational because the subjects are healthy and not being prescribed warfarin for clinical care.

Detailed description:
Warfarin is a highly effective oral anticoagulant that is increasingly prescribed in the United States. It has a narrow therapeutic window, however, that represents an inherent limitation, such that insufficient and excessive levels of anticoagulation are associated with elevated risks of thrombosis and bleeding particularly frequent early in the initial dose-finding phase of therapy. Typically, anticoagulation is achieved through empiric dosing and titration with consideration of certain variables and frequent assessment of the international normalized ratio (INR). Despite these precautions, conventional dosing strategies are associated with therapeutic levels of anticoagulation only about half the time on treatment. Recently, genetic variants, specifically variations in the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 genes, have been identified that affect warfarin dose requirements, prompting the expectation that gene-based dosing strategies may maximize therapeutic efficacy while minimizing the risks associated with dosing errors. While the association between variation in these genes and differences in warfarin dose requirements has been identified, the specific contribution of allelic variation to the response to warfarin administration has not been thoroughly identified. The investigators therefore seek to assess the impact of allelic variation on warfarin dose-response relationships in a group of healthy subjects. The investigators hypothesize that genetic variation in the CYP2C9 and VKORC1 enzymes will result in differences in the warfarin dose-response relationships when accounting for non-genetic factors that can affect the pharmacokinetics of warfarin and its effect on coagulation.

Arms:
arm 1: Healthy subjects age 18-74 with no medical indication for warfarin therapy, who are free of medications and co-morbid medical conditions with the potential to interfere with warfarin metabolism, and who are willing to follow a fixed vitamin K diet (men 120 micrograms/day, women 90 micrograms/day) are included.

Interventions: intervention 1: Warfarin
Intervention descriptions: intervention 1: Enrolled subjects on a fixed vitamin K diet followed a standard warfarin dosing algorithm with daily point-of-care INR checks to goal INR ≥ 2 for two consecutive days, then to baseline INR≤1.2 off warfarin. Genotyping for common and rare polymorphisms in CYP2C9, VKORC1, and CYP4F2 performed at study entry and unblinded at completion. Plasma Vitamin K and S-warfarin levels are obtained at goal INR ≥ 2 and study exit (INR ≤1.2 off warfarin).

Protocol document: