Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (Formerly Current Pharmacogenomics) - Volume 11, Issue 3, 2013

Pharmacogenomic technologies can potentially be beneficial to patients and healthcare providers alike. Decision-makers allocating finite healthcare budgets require robust and timely evidence to support the cost-effectiveness of pharmacogenomic technologies. This paper describes the use of the quality adjusted life year (QALY) to inform decision-making drawing on the examples of National Institute for Health and Care Excelle Read More

Genome sequencing technology is the basis of personalized genomic medicine and expansion of this technology will likely lead to widespread personalized medicine. Innovation in the highly competitive biotechnology industry is leading to a substantial decline in the price of whole genome sequencing, which will increase access to this technology. Also, the US National Institutes of Health recently invested $25 million in newb Read More

Dual antiplatelet therapy with aspirin and clopidogrel is a standard care to reduce the risk of recurrent cardiovascular events in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS). The dual treatment has demonstrated substantial benefit in patients undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) and stent implantation. Despite adequate treatment, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) occur in about 10% of patients Read More

Although the harmful health effects of smoking are well-known, roughly fifth of mankind is still smoking. Because quitting smoking is difficult mainly due to the addictive effect of nicotine, several attempts have been made to ease this in the smoking cessation process. These attempts have been complicated by existence of a substantial variability in the nicotine addiction and relapse times, shown to be attributable to both environ Read More

Personalized medicine applies knowledge about the patient’s individual characteristics in relation to health and intervention outcomes, including treatment response and adverse side-effects, to develop a tailored treatment plan. For women with breast cancer, personalized medicine has substantially improved the rate of survival, however, a high proportion of these women report multiple, co-occurring psychoneurological Read More

Abacavir hypersensitivity reaction (ABC-HSR) is associated with the presence of HLA-B* 57:01 allele. Alternative tests for ABC-HSR associated allele determination are needed where sequence-based HLA typing is not available, particularly in resource-limited settings or developing countries. This study focused on the development and evaluation of two HLA-B* 57:01 tagging SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphism) HCP5 (HLA compl Read More

The cytochrome P450 (CYP450) enzymes play a key role for interindividual variability in drug response. No comprehensive pharmacogenetic data are yet available for the Rwandan population in regards to single nucleotide polymorphisms in CYP450s of major importance for personalized medicine. This study investigated the genotype and allele frequencies with respect to relevant SNPs for CYP1A2, CYP2A6, CYP2B6, CYP3 Read More

Sex-dependent and population differences in the activities of cytochrome P450 enzymes affect the metabolism of many xenobiotics, including drugs. The proton pump inhibitor omeprazole is widely prescribed in many countries that call for population studies of its disposition. Omeprazole is metabolized by CYP2C19 and CYP3A4, resulting in the formation of 5-hydroxyomeprazole and omeprazole sulfone, respectively. This stu Read More