Some drugs can be completely ineffective or deadly in different people because each body reacts differently to the ingredients in the drug. For this reason, treatments that match people’s genetic codes will start a new era in the medical world.
According to the British Pharmacological Society and the Royal College of Physicians, genetic testing can detect how effective drugs are in your body.
The genetic code, or DNA, is a manual for how the body works. The branch of science that deals with drugs that match DNA is known as functional genomics.
Jane Burns, from Liverpool, who lost two-thirds of her skin as a teenager reacting to a new epilepsy drug, says she supports functional genomic testing.
“If it saves your life then that’s incredible.”
His epilepsy drug caused Stevens-Johnson syndrome, which affects the skin and is more common in those born with a certain mutation in their genetic code. Burns, who considers himself “very lucky”, has recovered but is afraid to try new drugs.
Affects almost everyone
Jane’s experiences may seem rare, but Prof. from the British Pharmacological Society. Mark Caulfield states that almost everyone (99.5% of every 100 people) has a genetic change that will prevent a drug from working or cause harm to the body.
For example, codeine, which is used as a pain reliever in more than 5 million people in the UK, does not work because their genetic code does not contain the enzymes that allow access to the morphine in codeine.
According to the genetic code of one in every 500 people, the use of gentamicin antibiotics carries the risk of losing their hearing.
Functional genomics is already being used for some drugs. In the past, 5-7 percent of users had a reaction to the HIV drug abacavir, and some died. Testing people’s DNA before prescribing the drug reduced this risk to zero.
Scientists have studied the 100 most prescribed drugs in the UK, and it turns out that technology already exists that could use genetic testing to prescribe 40 of them.
Genetic analysis costs around £100 and can only be done by taking a blood or saliva sample.
The tests are scheduled to take place at England’s National Health Service (NHS) next year.
Currently, the goal is to test one of these 40 drugs at the time of prescription. In the long term, there are plans to do genetic testing as soon as you are born or to make it a part of routine check-ups in the 50s.
Professor at the University of Liverpool Munir Pirmohamed says, “We now need to move from a ‘One drug fits all’ mentality to a personalized approach,” emphasizing that the right drug must be given in the right dose to increase safety and effectiveness:
“What we are doing now will be the start of a new era in the pharmaceutical world because we are all different individuals and our sensitivities to drugs vary.”
prof. Pirmohamed states that as they get older and start using more drugs, there is a 70 percent chance that people in their 70s will be affected by the genetic code of at least one drug they use.
NHS Chief David Prior says this will revolutionize the world of medicine, the “future” in functional genomics and “helping to build a new, modern, personalized healthcare system that fits into 2022”.