Cats develop hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, which thickens their heart muscle. Cats can develop blood clots in their heart as the disease progresses, which could eventually become dislodged and lead to excruciating pain, anxiety, or even sudden death. According to a study published in the journal Nature Portfolio ‘Scientific Reports’, Davis College of Veterinary Medicine has discovered that a cat’s DNA affects how it responds to a life-saving drug used to treat HCM, a disease heart disease that affects one in seven cats. .
“We were constantly seeing cats who, despite taking clopidogrel, were still forming blood clots,” said corresponding author Josh. Backprofessor of veterinary cardiology and geneticist at UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine. Which lead to Back and the research team to begin research in this area and identify mutations in the drug pathway that seemed important. The data showed that nearly 20% of cats showed resistance to treatment with clopidogrel, which is widely used by practitioners around the world. “This study aimed to determine why some cats did not respond as expected to clopidogrel treatment and lead us towards a more effective prescription,” Back said.
Researchers have started a clinical trial on cats with HCM. They first tested the cats’ ability to form blood clots. The owners of the cats administered clopidogrel for 14 days, and the cats were retested. The researchers were then able to test whether the genetic mutations they had identified in the drug’s pathway were responsible for reducing the drug’s effectiveness. “The end result is the ability to use a simple genetic test to make an informed decision about the most effective drug treatment to prevent blood clots in cats with HCM,” Back said.
Although such tests are not yet commercially available, researchers hope that eventually veterinarians will be able to rapidly test cats with HCM for these mutations as they make prescribing decisions. “We are very excited to enter this era where personalized or precision medicine in animals can catch up with precision medicine in humans,” the co-author said. Ronald Leeassistant veterinary emergency professor and critical care and coagulation researcher, whose lab has done much of the functional testing of anticoagulant therapies, adding: “Just as we cannot expect every human to respond to the drugs of the same way, we can’t expect all cats to react the same way either.
Researchers hope that in the future, personalized medicine for cats would allow vets to get tested kittens for a whole host of genetic variants that would help inform medical decisions and treatments as they grow and require veterinary care. Back and the UC Cardiology Department Davis The veterinary medical teaching hospital continues to offer clinical trials aimed at optimizing the treatment of cats with HCM. The team currently has a fully funded clinical trial of a drug aiming to be the first veterinary drug to reverse this devastating disease.
The research was carried out jointly by the Comparative Platelet and Neutrophil Physiology Laboratory and the Translational Cardiac Genetics and Pharmacogenomics Laboratory, both housed within the Companion Animal Health Center. Co-authors of this study also include Karen Vernau, Nghi Nguyen, Maureen Oldach, Eric Ontiveros and Samantha Kovacs from UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine; Yu Ueda from North Carolina State University; and Michael Court of Washington State University. Funding was provided by the Morris Animal Foundation to support research and graduate student education. (ANI)
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