Active Heart, Stroke & Blood Lungs & Breathing

Platelet Phenomic Analysis to guide patient stratification and anti-platelet medication in acute coronary syndrome

In plain English

AI plain-English summary

Doctors prescribe the same anti-platelet drugs to all heart attack survivors, even though some patients gain little protection and others suffer dangerous bleeding. This one-size-fits-all approach persists because no routine test can tell a clinician which patient will benefit and which will be harmed. The researchers will test a new method called Platelet Phenomics Analysis (PPA), which measures how sticky a patient’s platelets are, combined with pharmacogenomics (PGx), which looks at how a patient’s genes affect drug response. In a first group of acute coronary syndrome patients, they will map PPA profiles before and after anti-platelet therapy. In a second, smaller group, they will run a pilot study to see whether PPA and PGx results can guide the decision to use dual anti-platelet therapy (DAPT) and then track how targeted therapy changes the PPA profile. If the approach works, it could replace guesswork with a blood test that identifies patients who would benefit most from aggressive anti-platelet treatment while sparing those at high risk of bleeding. That would pave the way for larger clinical trials testing personalised anti-platelet therapy for both primary and secondary prevention of thrombosis.

View original technical description
Anti-platelet drugs are used to reduce the risk of thrombosis, and while these show benefits in some patients, increased risk of bleeding means that they are no longer recommended for primary prevention. While such medication is effective for secondary prevention in many patients, others gain little protection from further cardiovascular events. A one-size-fits-all approach is used where patients who may benefit or be harmed are not identified. In this study, we will determine the ability of Platelet Phenomics Analysis (PPA) to identify patients with acute coronary syndrome who have high or low platelet reactivity, and together with pharmacogenomics (PGx) analysis assess the impact of anti-platelet therapy on their PPA profile. In a second cohort of patients, we will perform a pilot study to test the ability of PPA with PGx to inform whether dual anti-platelet therapy (DAPT) is appropriate and test the consequence of targeted therapy on PPA profile. If successful, this will allow patients that may most benefit to be identified, and those that might bleed to be avoided. This will pave the way for future clinical studies to test the efficacy of targeted anti-platelet therapy for primary and secondary prevention of thrombosis.

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Researchers

Jonathan Gibbins (EPMC Awardee)

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Original classification

None

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