Gene Variant Linked to Reduced Heart Attack Risk

A slightly altered form of the gene for COX-2, the enzyme that is targeted by drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, new research suggests. The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are based on a study of 864 patients with a heart attack or stroke and 864 hospitalized patients without these problems. All of the subjects were tested for the COX-2 gene variant on both chromosome copies.

A slightly altered form of the gene for COX-2, the enzyme that is targeted by drugs like Vioxx and Celebrex, may reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke, new research suggests. The findings, which appear in the Journal of the American Medical Association, are based on a study of 864 patients with a heart attack or stroke and 864 hospitalized patients without these problems. All of the subjects were tested for the COX-2 gene variant on both chromosome copies. One copy of the variant was found in 43 percent of comparison patients, but in just 18 percent of patients with a heart attack or stroke, senior author Dr. Andrea Mezzetti, from Nuovo Policlinico SS Annunziata in Chieti, Italy, and colleagues note. Similarly, 6 percent of the comparison group had two copies of the variant compared with only 1 percent of the stroke/heart attack group. Having one copy of the COX-2 gene variant cut the risk of heart attack or stroke by 52 percent, whereas the presence of two copies reduced the risk by 67 percent. The variant gene may achieve these beneficial effects by reducing the amount of COX-2 present in inflammatory cells that make up blood vessel plaques, the authors note. Further studies are needed to identify other variants that may have a similar effect, they add. (Source: Reuters Health, Journal of the American Medical Association, May 2004)