By JEROME R. STOCKFISCH | Tribune staff Published: February 26, 2013 Updated: February 26, 2013 - 5:00 AM
In a development that could potentially benefit millions suffering from heart failure, a research team headed by a University of South Florida doctor has identified a genetic signature that can predict which heart patients might be saved from fatal arrhythmias.
Dr. Stephen Liggett found that patients with a certain genetic variant in their DNA sequence, who are treated with a specific beta-blocker, had a better-than-50-percent reduction in sudden death or the development of fatal heart rhythms.
Since that genetic variant is present in roughly half of all heart failure patients, "this presents a way to get the right drug to a substantial number of patients," Liggett said.
About 5 million people in the United States have heart failure, a disease in which the pumping function of the heart is reduced and not enough oxygenated blood is supplied to the body. The heart is also enlarged and has abnormal electrical activity, leading to sudden death due to unstable heart rhythms.
Liggett's research exemplifies USF Health's push toward personalized medicine, or understanding how an individual's genotype can lead to specific therapies. Liggett was lured from the University of Maryland last year to lead USF's efforts and serves as vice dean for personalized medicine and genomics as well as vice dean for research.
Previously, "the thought that our genetics so strongly control drug response was not in our mentality," Liggett said. "It was a one-drug-fits-all thing."
And that old way of thinking is inadequate, he said. "We are at the forefront of this, and it's one of the reasons I was brought here to make us a leader in this area."
Liggett's team examined and stored the DNA of 1,040 patients. They looked at the ADRB1 gene, which is important to heart function, and examined a particular position in the gene, which is coded as either "Arg389" or "Gly389."
The patients were treated with the experimental drug bucindolol, a beta-blocker that reduces the effect of stress on the heart.
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USF doctor leads team to discover DNA, heart failure link