
What is this project about?
High blood pressure (BP) is the leading risk factor for stroke, cardiac failure, coronary artery disease and chronic kidney disease. The prevalence of hypertension among Black South African adults has increased from ~30.4% in 2013 (Kandala et al., 2013) to ~48.9% in 2016 (Gómez-Olivé et al., 2017), primarily driven by lifestyle changes, and effective and timely treatment is complicated. Response to treatment with anti-hypertensive drugs appears to be influenced by environmental and genetic factors, which hinders “one-size-fits-all” treatment strategies. Recently, there has been increased interest in developing genotype-based algorithms to improve drug dosage guidelines (Lin and Chung, 2019). Especially when combined with clinically-relevant factors, there is potential for algorithmic tools to have clinical utility. However, previously developed algorithms, based on Caucasian data, have appreciably underperformed when applied to non-Caucasian patients, especially genetically-diverse continental Africans. By gathering clinical and genetic information on hypertensive patients in the Soweto-Johannesburg region, our study aims to provide data for a pharmacogenetics-guided treatment algorithm for high blood pressure that is tailored for Black South Africans.
Funder
SAMRC-SHIP
PI & Team Members
Michele Ramsay (PI)
Collen Masimirembwa (Co-PI)
Neil Martinson (Co-PI)
Kuda Nyamukapa (Student)
Collaborators
None
Period
2021 - 2024
Pharmacogenomics of High Blood Pressure Treatment
Exploratory framework for a pharmacogenetics-guided treatment algorithm for high blood pressure in Black South Africans

Project Media
Publications
None
The Aim
To explore the feasibility of developing an evidence-based PGx informed algorithm to assist clinical decision making for the treatment of high BP among black South Africans to mitigate the risk for progression to cardiovascular diseases later in life.
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Objectives
Recruit a sample of hypertensive Black African patients.
Build an evidence-base of clinical and genetic variables for subsequent statistical modelling.
Develop a pharmacogenetics-guided treatment algorithm for hypertension in Black South African patients.