- Wei, W‐Q;
- Feng, Q;
- Jiang, L;
- Waitara, MS;
- Iwuchukwu, OF;
- Roden, DM;
- Jiang, M;
- Xu, H;
- Krauss, RM;
- Rotter, JI;
- Nickerson, DA;
- Davis, RL;
- Berg, RL;
- Peissig, PL;
- McCarty, CA;
- Wilke, RA;
- Denny, JC
Efforts to define the genetic architecture underlying variable statin response have met with limited success, possibly because previous studies were limited to effect based on a single dose. We leveraged electronic medical records (EMRs) to extract potency (ED50) and efficacy (Emax) of statin dose-response curves and tested them for association with 144 preselected variants. Two large biobanks were used to construct dose-response curves for 2,026 and 2,252 subjects on simvastatin and atorvastatin, respectively. Atorvastatin was more efficacious, was more potent, and demonstrated less interindividual variability than simvastatin. A pharmacodynamic variant emerging from randomized trials (PRDM16) was associated with Emax for both. For atorvastatin, Emax was 51.7 mg/dl in subjects homozygous for the minor allele vs. 75.0 mg/dl for those homozygous for the major allele. We also identified several loci associated with ED50. The extraction of rigorously defined traits from EMRs for pharmacogenetic studies represents a promising approach to further understand the genetic factors contributing to drug response.