Current Pharmacogenomics and Personalized Medicine (Formerly Current Pharmacogenomics) - Volume 13, Issue 1, 2015

Background: Although clinicians failed to reproduce Pauling and Cameron’s earlier reports on the therapeutic effects of vitamin C on cancer, new information on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of vitamin C as well as new clinical data has provided more in depth understanding of the critical aspects of vitamin C’s therapeutic effects. Previous clinical studies suggested that vitamin C, introduced to cancer patients by Read More

Background: Individual drug response arises from the interplay between genes and the environment. Pharmacometabolomics, is an alternative, but complementary discipline to pharmacogenomics, aiming to predict or evaluate response to treatment. Methods: Data for this perspective article were identified by searches of PubMed and references from relevant articles using the search terms "pharmacogenomics", "pharmaco Read More

Background: Nutraceuticals are bioactive substances which are known for their therapeutic activity against a wide range of diseases. The term nutraceutical is derived from the terms ‘nutrition’ and ‘pharmaceuticals’ and refers to a food product that elicits medical health benefits for the prevention and cure of diseases. A nutraceutical has been investigated and indicated to exhibit physiological benefits and protection aga Read More

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the most important causes of mortality due to infectious diseases. The development of a vaccine inducing superior protection than BCG is a top priority for the future control of the disease. Methods: We reviewed the literature related with the impact of the host, microbiome and environmental elements in response to vaccination, with special emphasis on TB. Results: This review introduc Read More

Background: It is well-documented that though living in the same geographical area, European Roma and their host populations have distinct genetic ancestries. Nevertheless, there are very few studies addressing diversity of pharmacogenetic significance in Roma groups. The main goal of the present study was to characterise the Portuguese Gypsies for a selected battery of SNPs located in genes known to influence the Read More

Background: Particulate pollution is associated with occurrence of asthma and allergy, acting together with allergens in initiating and exacerbating these diseases. Production of reactive oxygen species contributes to this effect of pollutants. We tested the hypothesis that oxygen radicals generated by granulocytes are key regulators in exacerbation of allergic responses by particulate pollution. Methods: Out of pollen seas Read More

Background: Conventional organic fluorescent labels are currently being employed for detection of query molecules on protein microarrays platform; however, they exhibit certain limitations like poor photo-stability, overlapped emission/excitation spectra, autofluorescence, limited sensitivity, rigorous sample preparation procedures and are expensive. Objective: Objective of this study was to develop new labels whic Read More

Background: The response to thiopurine treatment in inflammatory bowel disease patients differs greatly among individuals and nearly 50% of patients experience no benefit. Several factors have been implicated in determining this response, including individual genetic variation. Methods: Aiming to identify genes involved in the response to thiopurine drugs, a two-stage investigation of 20,000 coding single-nucleotide polym Read More