Current Pharmacogenomics - Volume 5, Issue 1, 2007

Several enzymes belonging to the CYP450 group are involved in the biosynthesis and metabolism of estrogen. Polymorphisms of the genes encoding for these enzymes have been linked to hormone-related diseases, notably breast cancer. These associations are based on the notion that certain variants of these enzymes have altered activity resulting in an alteration in estrogenic state, which in turn leads to differences in Read More

Chemogenomics integrates genomic datasets with biological and chemical characteristics of compounds. It uses genomic or proteomic profiling combined with chemoinformatics and statistics to study the response of a biological system to chemical compounds. This large-scale approach is particularly suitable for addressing chemotherapeutic resistance, a main obstacle to successful treatment of cancer patients. Chemoge Read More

Recent research has linked the polymorphic metabotropic glutamate receptors to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia contributing to the development of the “glutamate hypothesis”. These receptors regulate glutamate through NMDA inotropic receptors. At the neurotransmitter level, antipsychotics developed to treat schizophrenia have been found to significantly increase serum glutamate levels and potentially affect t Read More

Dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPD), which is the initial and rate-limiting enzyme of the degradation of pyrimidine base, plays an important role in the pharmacogenetic syndrome of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). Deficiency of DPD activity leads to severe toxicities, even death, in patients after administering 5-FU. Several studies demonstrate that the molecular defects of the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase gene (DPYD) lead t Read More

Advances in nanoscience are having a significant impact on many scientific fields, boosting the development of a variety of important technologies. The impact of these new technologies is particularly large in biodiagnostics, where a number of nanoparticle-based assays have been introduced for biomolecular detection. The physicochemical malleability and high surface areas of nanoparticle surfaces make them ideal candidat Read More

Remarkable ethnic differences in drug response are well known, and many of these can be attributed to differences in genetic backgrounds. Accumulating evidence has shown that genetic polymorphisms can cause the alteration or even loss of activity in drug metabolizing enzymes, transporters and receptors. Thus, genetic polymorphisms may be important in understanding these ethnic differences in drug response. Read More

Researchers are using pathway information for both pharmacogenomics study design and data analysis. Candidate gene approaches for the design of pharmacogenomic studies need reliable pathway information to choose the best candidate genes and SNPs, especially when using low to medium throughput genotyping technologies, to maximize the likelihood of success. With the mainstream use of high throughput gene e Read More