Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (Formerly Current Pharmacogenomics) - Volume 10, Issue 3, 2012

In this paper, we advance the extant health technology innovation frames on global personalized medicine by highlighting the need to rethink genomics medicine in real-life settings – including situations where populations are frequently faced with natural disasters or man-made conflicts. We identify the steps towards building sufficient capacity to effectively harness and integrate genomic medicine and molecular diagnosti Read More

The human microbiota directly and indirectly impacts drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics, thus affecting treatment outcome and subsequently human health. The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) revived interest in the role of human microbiota in health and disease. Yet, no repository of reported drug-microbe interactions is publicly available, and no attempts have been made to link those interactions to the Read More

There is marked controversy on the beneficial levels of selenium (Se) to be used as a dietary supplement. The form of supplemented Se and the baseline plasma or serum Se status among supplemented populations are generally considered as crucial factors in this controversy. However, responses to supplemented Se can further vary with other factors, including health status, lifestyle, demographics and genetics. In the p Read More

Research in the field of pharmacogenetics (PGx) has been growing exponentially over the past decade in a manner that is disproportionate to the rate of its incorporation into clinical practice. That is why efforts to further PGx education in health professional schools have been initiated to reduce the gap that currently exists between research and practice. Because there is a current paucity of information regarding the sta Read More

Organic anion transporting polypeptides (OATP/SLCO) 2B1 and 1B3 mediate the cellular influx of androgens. Very few studies have specifically evaluated genetic variation and androgen transport. The aim of this study was to evaluate if human genetic variation in SLCO2B1 and SLCO1B3 genes are associated with the disposition of testosterone and five of its metabolites before and two days after the administration of a si Read More

Personalized medicine has been defined as the tailoring of medical treatment based on individual patient characteristics. In practice, personalized medicine generally involves the stratifying of patient populations based on biomarkers, most frequently genetic in nature. This results in patient subpopulations likely to show differential responses to drug therapy in terms of efficacy and toxicity. While the potential for personalized Read More

Novel diagnostics R&D in public health and personalized medicine hold great promise as tools to speed up the translation of results from bench to bedside for selecting and optimizing treatment and health outcomes for each person. Although the integration of individualized medicine into clinical decision making is still evolving, accumulating evidence reveals that genetic and genomic information could help predict clinical Read More

It is increasingly common for patients to use western medications concurrently with Traditional Chinese Medicine or other herbal medicines. Indeed, it is estimated that one-third of people in developed countries are using alternative therapies including herbal medicines. Metabolism of drugs/herbs takes place to a large extent in the liver and small intestine via various drug-metabolizing enzymes. Therefore, the concurrent use of we Read More