Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics

Daniel W Nebert, University of Cincinnati Medical Center, Cincinnati, Ohio, USA

Published online: May 2008

DOI: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005558.pub2

Between 1930 and 1990, several dozen high-penetrance predominantly monogenic (hPpM) disorders in drug metabolism were identified and characterized, leading many to expect that the field of pharmacogenetics would very soon be able to provide us with ‘individualized drug therapy’. However, then came the Human Genome Project and the field of pharmacogenomics. We now realize that the genome is exceedingly complex and that the likelihood of ever achieving individualized drug therapy – for every person and every drug – is not scientifically or financially feasible. Perhaps genomics – in combination with transcriptomics, proteomics and metabonomics – will provide some degree of success, within the next several decades.

Keywords: drug metabolism; transporters; receptors; signal transduction pathways; polymorphisms; human populations

Figure 1. Schematic diagram illustrating how pharmacogenomics (differential displays of genes, genome expression patterns) might aid in the design of new drugs, as well as in our better understanding of the etiology of drug efficacy, therapeutic failure or drug toxicity.
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Related Sub-Topics:

Molecular Genetics of Common and Complex Disease | Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics | Techniques and Tools in Clinical Genetics | Inter-Individual Variation and Polymorphism | Gene Expression Profiling of Genetic Disease
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Article Title: Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics
 
How to Cite close
Nebert, Daniel W(May 2008) Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics. In: eLS. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, Chichester. http://www.els.net [doi: 10.1002/9780470015902.a0005558.pub2]