Pannexin1 Single Nucleotide Polymorphism and Platelet Reactivity in a Cohort of Cardiovascular Patients

Abstract

Pannexin1 (Panx1), a membrane channel-forming protein permitting the passage of small-sized molecules, such as ATP, is expressed in human platelets. Recently, we showed that inhibiting Panx1 affects collagen-induced platelet aggregation but not aggregation triggered by other agonists. We also found that a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs1138800) in the Panx1 gene encoded for a gain-of-function channel (Panx1-400C) and was associated with enhanced collagen-induced platelet reactivity. Here, we assessed the association of this SNP with platelet reactivity in a cohort of 758 stable cardiovascular patients from the ADRIE study treated with aspirin and/or clopidogrel. We found that presence of the Panx1-400C allele was not associated with platelet reactivity in stable cardiovascular patients, irrespective of the platelet aggregation agonist used (collagen, ADP or arachidonic acid) or the anti-platelet drug regimen. Moreover, the Panx1-400A > C SNP did also not affect the re-occurrence of cardiac ischemic events in the same stable cardiovascular patient cohort.

Keywords:

• Platelet aggregation
• genetic polymorphism
• pannexin1
• membrane channel
• anti-platelet drugs
• collagen

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Bernard Foglia and Séverine Nolli for technical help.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Swiss National Science Foundation (310030_162579/1 to B. R. K. and 3200B0-116843 to P. F.) and the Swiss Heart Foundation (to B. R. K. and P. F.).