Genetic Polymorphisms in Pharmaceuticals and Chemotherapy

Abstract

The study of genetic polymorphisms has significantly advanced the field of personalized medicine. Polymorphism of genes influence the efficacy of drugs used for treating medical conditions such as depression, cardiac diseases, thromboembolic disorders, oncological diseases, etc. The study of genetic polymorphism is beneficial for drug safety as well as for assessing therapeutic outcomes. Understanding and detecting genetic polymorphisms early on in patients can be useful in selecting the correct chemotherapeutic agent and appropriate dosage for a patient. Knowing the genetic profile of a patient and the interindividual response to various drugs significantly influences the proper selection of medication -a key step towards personalized medicine. Polymorphisms also make patients susceptible to certain cancers and identification of these polymorphisms early can be useful for a personalized treatment plan. The Genome-Wide Association Studies (GWAS) project where millions of genetic variants in the genomes of many individuals are studied to identify connections between what is present on the gene and the phenotype of the patient has enhanced the prospect of personalized medicine. GWAS has been used to identify hundreds of diseases associated to genetic polymorphisms. Individual pharmacokinetic profiles of patients to drugs enable the development of early surveillance protocols to prophylactically prevent patients from having adverse reactions. Furthermore, patient-derived cellular organoids are another advancement that allows researchers to screen for polymorphisms of the patient for adverse reactions from chemotherapy and will allow for the development of new medications that are specific to the profile of the patient's tumor. These advances have led to significant progress towards personalized medicine. The functional consequences of genetic polymorphism on cancer drugs and treatment are studied here.

Pharmacogenomics of Drugs Used in β-Thalassemia and Sickle-Cell Disease: From Basic Research to Clinical Applications

“…This research activity involves interdisciplinary collaborations between researchers working in genetics, molecular biology, pharmacology, pharmaceutics, and organic chemistry and it is expected to discover useful information on the mechanisms of drug action (e.g., pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics), the identification of novel molecular targets, and the design of novel biomedicines [3][4][5]. Furthermore, the clinical application for the prediction of toxicity risk or beneficial effects could be helpful in numerous ways for several pathologies, including hemoglobinopathies [13,20,[23][24][25][26][27].…”

The Potential of Integrative Cancer Treatment Using Melatonin and the Challenge of Heterogeneity in Population-Based Studies: A Case Report of Colon Cancer and a Literature Review

“…Currently, there is heterogeneity in the accumulated bioinformatics, which is due not only to inappropriate stratification, bias, quality of trials, or methods of assessment but also to the influence of numerous factors leading to different results in response to treatment. High heterogeneity may be due to tumor pathology itself, i.e., type, tumor localization, stages, gradation, genome instability and mutation, molecular and metabolic characteristics, and the type of treatment, doses, duration, bioavailability, and individual response to treatment associated with genetic polymorphism [154]. Moreover, concomitant diseases, the use of other drugs, physiological and psychosocial factors, and the composition of the resident microbiota may also affect the outcome of both CT and integrative treatment.…”

The crosstalk between non-coding RNA polymorphisms and resistance to lung cancer therapies

“…Recently, treatment paradigm of lung cancer has been shifted to the evolution of targeting a wide ranges of oncogenes to reverse drug resistance and improve the use of personalized medicine with the aim of promoting quality of life and survival of patients. One of the beneficial approaches to design clinical setting and evaluate therapeutic outcomes is evaluating the patient's genetic polymorphism which open a promising avenue towards personalized medicine [ 20 ]. Based, this article provides insight into the importance of non-coding RNA polymorphisms in therapeutic response of lung cancer, which allow to find the pharmacogenomics of drug-based toxicities in lung cancer patients and comprehensively assess the association between genetic polymorphisms and drug response in lung cancer patients.…”

“…Variations in human phenotype are often caused by genetic and environmental factors [ 20 ] Genetic variations, known as polymorphisms, describe the occurrence of different phenotypes in a given population. A variation in the DNA sequence that is not a mutation is called polymorphism [ 21 ].…”