Pharmacogenomics of celiprolol – evidence for a role of P‐glycoprotein and organic anion transporting polypeptide 1A2 in celiprolol pharmacokinetics

The aim of this study was to search for associations of genetic variants with celiprolol pharmacokinetics in a large set of pharmacokinetic genes, and, more specifically, in a set of previously identified candidate genes ABCB1, SLCO1A2, and SLCO2B1. To this end, we determined celiprolol single‐dose (200 mg) pharmacokinetics and sequenced 379 pharmacokinetic genes in 195 healthy volunteers. Analysis with 46,064 common sequence variants in the 379 genes did not identify any novel genes associated with celiprolol exposure. The candidate gene analysis showed that the ABCB1 c.3435T>C and c.2677T/G>A, and the SLCO1A2 c.516A>C variants were associated with reduced celiprolol area under the plasma concentration‐time curve (AUC(0–∞)). An alternative analysis with ABCB1 haplotypes showed that, in addition to SLCO1A2 c.516A>C, three ABCB1 haplotypes were associated with reduced celiprolol AUC(0–∞). A genotype scoring system was developed based on these variants and applied to stratify the participants to low and high celiprolol exposure genotype groups. The mean AUC(0–∞) of celiprolol in the low exposure genotype group was 55% of the mean AUC(0–∞) in the high exposure group (p = 1.08 × 10(−11)). In addition, the results showed gene‐gene interactions in the effects of SLCO1A2 and ABCB1 variants on celiprolol AUC(0–∞) (p < 5 × 10(−6)) suggesting an interplay between organic anion transporting polypeptide 1A2 and P‐glycoprotein in celiprolol absorption. Taken together, these data indicate that P‐glycoprotein and organic anion transporting polypeptide 1A2 play a role in celiprolol pharmacokinetics. Furthermore, patients with ABCB1 and SLCO1A2 genotypes associated with low celiprolol exposure may have an increased risk of poor blood‐pressure lowering response to celiprolol.