Statin treatment effectiveness and the SLCO1B1*5 reduced function genotype: Long-term outcomes in women and men

To estimate the effect of rs4149056 (SLCO1B1*5) genotype (decreases statin transport) on cholesterol control and treatment duration in male and female primary care patients prescribed common statin medications.

This study comprised 69 185 European-ancestry UK Biobank cohort participants prescribed simvastatin or atorvastatin (aged 40-79 years at first prescription, treatment duration 1 month to 29 years, mean 5.7 years). Principal outcomes were clinically high total cholesterol (>5 mmol/L) at baseline, plus treatment discontinuation.

A total of 48.4% of 591 females homozygous for SLCO1B1*5 decreased function genotype had raised cholesterol vs 41.7% of those with functioning SLCO1B1 (odds ratio 1.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.1-1.55, P = .001). Fewer males had high cholesterol and the genotype effect was attenuated. In primary care prescribing, females homozygous for SLCO1B1*5 were more likely to stop receiving these statins (29.5%) than women with normal SLCO1B1 (25.7%) (hazard ratio [HR] 1.19, 95% CI 1.03-1.37, P = .01), amounting to five discontinuations per 100 statin-years in the SLCO1B1*5 group vs four in the normal SLCO1B1 function group. This remained significant after the first year of treatment (HR for discontinuing >1 year after first prescription 1.3, 95% CI 1.08-1.56, P = .006). In men SLCO1B1*5 was only associated with treatment discontinuation in the first year.

In this large community sample of patients on commonly prescribed statins, the SLCO1B1*5 decreased function variant had much larger effects on cholesterol control and treatment duration in women than in men. Efforts to improve the effectiveness of statin therapy in women may need to include SLCO1B1*5 genotype-guided statin selection.