Genes to tell which medication is right for you
Customized Treatment: DNA Map Can Identify An Individual's Health Risks
London: The next time Stephen Quake is prescribed a drug, he says he won't worry about having a bad reaction. The Stanford University professor will simply consult his genome to see if there are any warning signs in his DNA.
More than two dozen of Quake's scientist colleagues combed through is genetic code to assess his chances of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and how he might react to common medicines. The results were published on Friday in the medical journal Lancet.
It is example of the kind of personalized medicine that might one day be possible if doctors have a map of their patients' DNA. Seven other people have had their genomes sequenced.
But as the gene scan becomes more widely available, experts warn interpreting the data may be trickier than obtaining it. "We need to get better at explaining what this information means for patients,"said Euan Ashley, an assistant professor of medicine at Stanford and the Lancet paper's lead autheor.
For months, 30 scientists studied over 2 million gene variants in Quake's DNA. They found genes linked with sudden cardiac death and others suggesting the might be resistant to the anti-clotting drug clopdogrel.Ashley recommended Quake start taking cholesterol-lowering statins. Quake declined.
The research was paid for by the US National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute and other. When the first human genome sequenced, it cost about $3 billion. decoding Quake's genome cost $50,000.Experts said the price of getting a genome sequence may drop to below $1,000 in the years to come, tempting more people to get DNA mapped.
Some experts said legislation might be needed to protect such sensitive information. "The genie is now out of the bottle," said Nilesh Samani of the University of Leicester. He was not connected to the research. "We need to think if we need laws to prevent genetic information from getting into the wrong hands."
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