Accuracy and Precision: How Pharmacogenomics Impact Medical Treatment

Pharmacogenomics is reshaping modern medicine by showing that a patient's genetic profile can predict how well they metabolize certain drugs. Recent findings from the NIH highlight how variants in genes directly influence the effectiveness of antidepressants, pain medications, and cancer therapies. Instead of relying on a one size fits all approach, clinicians can now tailor drug selection and dosing to a patient's genome reducing side effects and improving outcomes. 

The CDC reinforces this shift toward personalized care, showing that preemptive genetic testing can prevent ineffective treatments and adverse reactions. As more hospitals adopt genetic panels for routine care, drug therapy is becoming safer, faster, and more precise.

How genes influence marijuana use

             

                 Members who smoked marijuana more than five times were studied. From this study, it was found that the use of marijuana is influenced by genetic factors. Marijuana has different effects such as anxiety, depression, confusion, delusions and euphoria. However, people have different reactions to marijuana. These different reactions depend on situational differences and chemical changes in the body. There is proof from animal research that a Drug reaction is influenced by genetics. For example, different kinds of genes control responses of motor stimulation. A research study has found that interaction among a small number of genetic loci or a single gene of major affect produces non-addictive genetic influences. The two factors of negative effects or pleasant effects are both influenced by genes and the environment. One of the genetically influenced factors that mediate the association between genotype and phenotype of this drug using behavior is because of genetic influence on subjective effects. In conclusion, for marijuana, the majority of genetic factors that contribute to the use of the drug also contribute to dependence symptoms. 

Link 1: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~dcare/pdfs/fp/GreenAlan-HowDoGenesInfluenceMarijuanaUse.pdf 

Related link: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1360-0443.1997.tb03372.x/abstract

Mutation Related to Migraines Identified Through Sleep Patterns

 According to Medical News Today, a link has been identified between migraines and an advanced and unusual sleep disorder.  The disorder is known as familial advanced phase sleep syndrome.  FAPSS is a rare sleep disorder in which an individual's circadian rhythm causes that person to go to sleep at an early time and then wake up well before dawn.  For example, someone with this disorder would be known to go to bed around 6:00 pm and then would wake up around 3:00 am.  Because this sleep disorder is so rare, doctors were able to determine a connection when they noticed that those individuals that are affected by the disorder are also commonly affected by migraines.

  So, what's the link?  The mutation occurs when the enzyme CKIδ becomes impaired.  The enzyme CKIδ is known as a common "housekeeping" enzyme because it functions in maintaining several different, basic processes and regulations throughout the body.  One of CKIδ's functions is to help control the circadian rhythm that determine's the sleep cycle. 

In the mid 1990s, Dr. Robert E. Shapiro was working with a family that was known to have familial advanced phase sleep syndrome.  It was by working with this family that he was able to make the connection that the family members also suffered from migraines.  Because migraines alone are so vague and common, the mutation in the CKIδ enzyme would have been impossible to discover based on the presence of migraine symptoms alone.  Eventually, the mutation was identified to be the cause of the sleep disorder and further studies were then conducted to decipher whether or not the mutation also had a direct impact on migraines. 

The mutation in the CKIδ gene now creates a total of 6 genes that have been isolated and found to cause migraines.  Studies are currently underway to develop a new drug therapy for the treatment of migraines.