Pharmacogenomics

What is
Pharmacogenomics?
o The term pharmacogenomics is used to describe a field of research
focused on how genes affect individual responses to medicines.
Whether a medicine works well for you — or whether it causes
serious side effects — depends, to a certain extent, on your genes.
o Just as genes contribute to whether you will be tall or short, black-
haired or blond, your genes also determine how you will respond to
medicines. Genes are like recipes — they carry instructions for
making protein molecules. As medicines travel through your body,
they interact with thousands of proteins. Small differences in the
composition or quantities of these molecules can affect how
medicines do their jobs. These differences can be due to diet, level
of activity, or the medicines a person takes, but they can also be
due to differences in genes. By understanding the genetic basis of
drug responses, scientists hope to enable doctors to prescribe the
drugs and doses best suited for each individual.
 Aren't prescribed
medicines already safe
and effective?
Many drugs that are currently available are “one
size fits all,” but they don't work the same way for
everyone. It can be difficult to predict who will
benefit from a medication, who will not respond at
all, and who will experience negative side effects
(called adverse drug reactions).
While standard doses of most medicines work well
for most people, some medicines don’t work at all
in certain people or cause annoying and
sometimes dangerous side effects. For example,
codeine is useless as a painkiller in nearly 10
percent of people, and an anticancer drug, 6-
mercaptopurine, is extremely toxic in a small
fraction of the population.
Clinical Goals of Pharmacogenomics

• Avoid adverse drug reactions

• Maximize drug efficacy

• Select responsive patients

 Pharmacogenomics
• Study of variability in drug response determined by
multiple genes within the genome.

• The study of how people respond differently to medicines

• Pharmacogenomics involves study of the role of genes

and their genetic variations in the molecular basis of
disease, and therefore, the resulting pharmacologic
impact of drugs on that disease

• Critical component of personalized and individualized

medicine
 Pharmacogenomics
• The field of pharmacogenomics is still in its
infancy. Its use is currently quite limited, but new
approaches are under study in clinical trials. In
the future, pharmacogenomics will allow the
development of tailored drugs to treat a wide
range of health problems, including
cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer disease,
cancer, HIV/AIDS, and asthma.