Current drug metabolism
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Current drug metabolism · Oct 2008
ReviewClinical pharmacogenetics and potential application in personalized medicine.
The current 'fixed-dosage strategy' approach to medicine, means there is much inter-individual variation in drug response. Pharmacogenetics is the study of how inter-individual variations in the DNA sequence of specific genes affect drug responses. This article will highlight current pharmacogenetic knowledge on important drug metabolizing enzymes, drug transporters and drug targets to understand interindividual variability in drug clearance and responses in clinical practice and potential use in personalized medicine. ⋯ Drugs with a narrow therapeutic index are thought to benefit more from pharmacogenetic studies. For example, warfarin serves as a good practical example of how pharmacogenetics can be utilized prior to commencement of therapy in order to achieve maximum efficacy and minimum toxicity. As such, pharmacogenetics has the potential to achieve optimal quality use of medicines, and to improve the efficacy and safety of both prospective and licensed drugs.