Current updates on pharmacogenetics of hypertension

Abstract

The leading cause of cardiovascular disease is hypertension, whereas less than half of the 
patients are on antihypertensive drugs to control their blood pressure. Hypertension is a complex 
condition that affects more than one billion population in the world. Therefore, controlled blood 
pressure helps to prevent any cardiovascular event and reduce premature mortality and disability. 
In a non-responsive hypertensive patient, pharmacogenomics helps to guide personalized 
treatment. Pharmacogenetics gives hope toward targeted therapy, but challenges remain in 
implementing pharmacogenetic-aided antihypertensive therapy in clinical practice. There is only 
a lower percentage of genetic variability in response to antihypertensive drugs that have been 
explained, and the vast majority of the genetic variants associated with antihypertensives 
efficacy and toxicity remain to be identified. Therefore, some genetic variants with evidence of 
association with the variable response related to these most commonly used antihypertensive 
drug classes needed to be confirmed in future studies.