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Abstract:  People respond in different ways to similar doses of a drug. A drug that works well in one person may have a very different effect in another individual. Pharmacogenomics is the study of interindividual genetic differences in drug disposition, and of the applications of these variations in selecting an optimal drug therapy and dosage for each individual. Most drug effects are determined by the interaction of several gene products such as drug targets, drug metabolizing enzymes, and transporters that influence the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications. Polymorphisms in genes encoding these targets may influence sensitivity to selected drugs by an indirect effect on drug response that is unrelated to drug metabolism or transport. The drug-metabolism type may be identified through phenotyping or genotyping. Phenotyping evaluates the level of activity of an enzyme that is purported to metabolize a group of drugs; from this enzyme activity, an individual is assigned a drug-metabolism profile, which

Related Keywords: pharmacogenomics, pharmacogenetics, genetics, customized therapy, individualized therapy

Related Categories: TECHNOLOGY

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