The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) consist of three related transcription factors that serve to regulate a number of cellular processes that are central to cardiovascular health and disease. Numerous pharmacologic studies have assessed the effects of specific PPAR agonists in clinical trials and have provided insight into the clinical effects of these genes while genetic st...

The thiopurine S-methyltransferase (TPMT) gene encodes for the TPMT enzyme that plays a crucial role in the metabolism of thiopurine drugs. Genetic polymorphisms in this gene can affect the activity of the TPMT enzyme and have been correlated with variability in response to treatment with thiopurines. Advances in the pharmacogenetics of TPMT allowed the development of dosing recommendations and...

Individual drug responses are the result of interactions of multiple environmental and genetic factors. Pharmacogenetics studies the influence of genetic variation on interindividual differences in drug efficacy, adverse events and dosing. This article discusses general strategies for candidate gene selection and pharmacogenetic association studies. A summary of the major pharmacogenetic associ...

Pharmacogenetics is one of the first clinical applications of the postgenomic era; it studies the role of heritability of drug responses. It promises personalised medicine rather than the established ‘one size fits all’ approach to drugs and dosages. This should ultimately lead to more efficient and safer drug therapy. In recent years, pharmacogenetic information has been included in drug label...

Over the last decades important progress is being made regarding disease modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs), like methotrexate (MTX), in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Nevertheless, a substantial part of the patients fail to achieve a good response and/or experience toxicity, which limits further treatment leading to progression of inflammation and destruction of joints. These...

BACKGROUND Pharmacogenetics is an emerging field currently being implemented to improve safety when prescribing drugs. While many women who take drugs during pregnancy would likely benefit from such personalized drug therapy, data is lacking on the awareness towards pharmacogenetics among women. We aim to determine the level of knowledge and acceptance of formerly pregnant women in the Netherla...

In September this year the Nuffield Council on Bioethics held a meeting to disclose and discuss the main findings of their newly published report on the ethical issues associated with developments in pharmacogenetics research. The basics of pharmacogenetics science is briefly outlined, and then the extent to which the report was successful in addressing (or at least highlighting) the attendant ...

Abstract Background Risk assessment models are at the core of flight medicine, weighing both impact environment on an aviator and potential medical events in aviators operations. Pharmacogenetics is application a patient’s genetic information to reduce medication risk. Here, we use three conditions commonly encountered by U.S. Air Force’s medicine community (asthma, diabetes, hypertension) demo...

Pharmacogenetics is a rapidly developing field, especially in oncology. In the most ideal situation pharmacogenetics will allow oncologists to individualize therapy based on patients' individual germline genetic test results. This can help to improve efficacy, reduce toxicity and predict non-responders in a way that alternative therapy can be chosen or individual dose adjustments can be made. M...