Absence of Novel CYP4F2 and VKORC1 Coding Region DNA Variants in Patients Requiring High Warfarin Doses

Abstract

Warfarin is an FDA-approved oral anticoagulant for long-term prevention of thromboembolism. Substantial inter-individual variation in dosing requirements and the narrow therapeutic index of this widely-prescribed drug make safe initiation and dose stabilization challenging. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) occurring in CYP2C9, VKORC1, and CYP4F2 genes are known to impact dose, and VKORC1 and CYP4F2 polymorphisms are associated with higher therapeutic dose requirements in our cohort. However, the most advanced regression models using personal, clinical, and genetic factors to predict individual stable dose account for only 50% to 60% of the observed variability in stable therapeutic dose in Caucasians. In this study, we used DNA sequence analysis to determine whether additional variants in CYP4F2 and VKORC1 gene coding regions contribute to variable dosing requirements among individuals for whom the actual dose was the highest relative to regression model- predicted dose. No novel DNA variants in the coding regions of these genes were identified among subjects requiring high warfarin doses, suggesting that other factors yet to be defined contribute to variability in warfarin dose requirements in this subset of our cohort.