Drug safety
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Older adults are more susceptible to the prevalence of therapeutic failure and adverse drug reactions (ADRs). Recent advances in genomic research have shed light on the crucial role of genetic variants, mainly involving genes encoding drug-metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters and genes responsible for a compound's mechanism of action, in driving different treatment responses among individuals, in terms of therapeutic efficacy and safety. The interindividual variations of these genes may account for the differences observed in drug efficacy and the appearance of ADRs in elderly people. ⋯ A Pubmed search was performed (years 1999-2012) using the following two search strategies: ('pharmacogenomic' OR 'pharmacogenetic ') AND ('geriatric' or 'elderly ') AND 'adverse drug reactions'; [gene name] AND ('geriatric' or 'elderly ') AND 'adverse drug reactions', in which the gene names were those contained in the Table of Pharmacogenomic Biomarkers in Drug Labels published online by the US Food and Drug Administration ( http://www.fda.gov/drugs/scienceresearch/researchareas/pharmacogenetics/ucm083378.htm ). Reference lists of included original articles and relevant review articles were also screened. The search was limited to studies published in the English language.