Genetics of predicting drug responses

Genetics of Predicting Drug Responses

What is Pharmacogenomics?

Pharmacogenomics is an important example of the field of precision medicine, which aims to tailor medical treatment to each person or to a group of people. Pharmacogenomics looks at how your DNA affects the way you respond to drugs. In some cases, your DNA can affect whether you have a bad reaction to a drug or whether a drug helps you or has no effect. Pharmacogenomics can improve your health by helping you know ahead of time whether a drug is likely to benefit you and be safe for you to take. 

How was the research done?

Researchers will study how different drugs are affected by a person’s genes. They will look at information from people who have taken six different drugs: 

• Clopidogrel 
• Statins
• Fentanyl
• Methotrexate
• ACE inhibitors
• Antidepressants 
• Vancomycin

Their goal is to see how all the different genes in a person’s body affect how they respond to these drugs. They want to create a tool that can predict how a person will react to these drugs based on their genes. Based on this tool, they want to find out why some people have a different reaction than expected. 

Why is this study important?

The goal is to help patients get better by studying how their genes affect the way they respond to drugs. Researchers want to create models that use a patient’s genes to predict how they will react to drugs like fentanyl. This will help doctors give patients the right amount of medicine, which can reduce side effects and make the medicine work better. Researchers think that by using a patient’s genes to personalize drug therapy, they can improve patient outcomes and make treatments more effective.