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Pharmacogenomics
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Drugs work in your body in numerous ways. Once you take a medication your body needs metabolise it (break it down) and deliever it to its intended target. How you take a medication and what its purpose is, will influence its effects. Your DNA can affect multiple steps in this process to influence how you respond to the drug.
Pharmacogenomics is the study of how your genome affects how well a medicine will work, as well as trying to understand if it is likely to cause side effects.
This increases the ability of your doctor to select meciactions that are right for you rather than having to try several different ones. It can also be used to avoid some drugs which may be likely to cause adverse side effects, or indicate what the best dosage might be, reducing the chance of too much or too little of a medication.
Codine ( a pain relief medication) is an example of this. It needs to be metabolised by an enzyme in the liver called CYP2D6. If you have a variation in your DNA which results low levels of this enzyme codine is unlikey to be as effective for you and you may be more likely to have side effects.
Many genes are likely to be involved in how you may react to a medication, so choosing the right medication may be complex.
Factors that influence how you respond to any one medication is influence by your general health and environmental factors, other medication you are taking as well as your DNA.
One example is the blood thining medication, warfarin. Genetic variaents such as CYP2C9 and VKORC1 can affect the dose you might need and how long it will take to stablise on the right dose, however warfarin is also affected by other medications, diet, your age and the reason you are taking it.
Pharmacogenomic testing is currently used for only a relatively small number of drugs, but the field is growing very quickly. Improved understanding of how pharmacogenomics can protect your health and improve your treatment is becoming increasingly important. Genomic doctor can help you understand if pharmocogenic testing will be benifical for you, your ongoing medical treatment, and guide you in appropriate test selection.