From ‘one size fits all’ to personalised medicine in anti-platelet therapies

Understanding differences in platelet function and regulation in health and cardiometabolic disease: towards personalised and more effective anti-platelet treatment (renewal)

Researchers in Reading are developing new tests they hope could predict how individuals will respond to anti-platelet drugs. Platelets are cells in the blood that trigger blood clotting. They protect us from excessive bleeding after injury. However, in diseased blood vessels, they can trigger blood clots that block the vessel and cause heart attack or stroke. Medicines that reduce the action of platelets are often used in people at risk of these conditions, but they don’t work for everyone and can have serious side effects. Drugs to reduce platelet function are prescribed on a ‘one size fits all’ basis. However, the action of platelets can vary between individuals, and this could affect how they respond to medicines. Professor Gibbins and his team have been investigating the underlying reasons for these differences and have developed a range of tests to study this. They will now use them to analyse blood samples from hundreds of people who have had a heart attack or stroke. By seeing how platelets from these people respond in the tests, and looking at how well each patient responded to treatment following their heart attack or stroke, the researchers will see if they can predict which new patients should take which anti-platelet medicines, and why. They hope that this could lead to personalised and more effective way to prevent more heart attacks and strokes.