Personalized Medicine
The discussion will explain the genomic basis of personalized medicine and explore its potential for good as well as its possible risks.
1. What is the human genome?
2. What is personalized medicine?
3. Is personalized medicine only for sick people?
1. What is the human genome?
The human genome is the blueprint for each person's body, influencing how we look, our genetic predispositions for certain medical conditions, how well our bodies fight disease or metabolize food, and which therapies our bodies do and do not respond to.
The genome consists of an organism's total DNA, including its genes. DNA—the famous "double helix"—is composed of four chemicals, which are repeated many times in different sequences. (The names of the chemicals are abbreviated as A, T, C, and G. That's why DNA is sometimes referred to as a code with a four-letter alphabet.) The sequence of the chemicals dictates the type of organism that develops, as well as other critical life functions. The human genome contains approximately 3 billion pairs of these chemicals.
Genes are believed to make up only about 2 percent of the human genome, with the rest consisting of "noncoding" regions, thought to regulate the function of genes and contribute to the structural integrity of chromosomes.
2. What is personalized medicine?
Personalized medicine is a young but rapidly advancing field of healthcare that is informed by each person's unique clinical, genetic, genomic, and environmental information. Because these factors are different for every person, the nature of diseases—including their onset, their course, and how they might respond to drugs or other interventions—is as individual as the people who have them.
Personalized medicine is about making the treatment as individualized as the disease. It involves identifying genetic, genomic, and clinical information that allows accurate predictions to be made about a person's susceptibility of developing disease, the course of disease, and its response to treatment.
In order for personalized medicine to be used effectively by healthcare providers and their patients, these findings must be translated into precise diagnostic tests and targeted therapies. This has begun to happen in certain areas, such as testing patients genetically to determine their likelihood of having a serious adverse reaction to various cancer drugs.
Because the 2003 sequencing of the human genome provided crucial insight into the biological workings behind countless medical conditions, scientists and physicians are advancing the field of personalized medicine at a fast pace. It is not yet an established part of clinical practice, but a number of top-tier medical institutions now have personalized medicine programs, and many are actively conducting both basic research and clinical studies in genomic medicine.
Specific advantages that personalized medicine may offer patients and clinicians include:
• Ability to make more informed medical decisions
• Higher probability of desired outcomes thanks to better-targeted therapies
• Reduced probability of negative side effects
• Focus on prevention and prediction of disease rather than reaction to it
• Earlier disease intervention than has been possible in the past
• Reduced healthcare costs
Personalized medicine is not to be confused with "genetic medicine." Genetics, a field more than 50 years old, is the study of heredity. It examines individual genes and their effects as they relate to biology and medicine. "Single cell" genetic diseases include muscular dystrophy, cystic fibrosis, and sickle cell anemia. (However, even these seemingly "simple" hereditary disorders can be influenced by other genes, as well as by environmental factors such as diet and exposure to toxins.)
Genomic and personalized medicine aims to tackle more complex diseases, such as cancer, heart disease, and diabetes, for years believed to be influenced primarily by environmental factors and their interaction with the human genome. It is now understood that because these diseases have strong multigene components—and in some cases might be caused by errors in the DNA between genes instead of within genes—they can be better understood using a whole-genome approach.
3. Is personalized medicine only for sick people?
Definitely not. Because an individual's genome influences his or her likelihood of developing (or not developing) a broad range of medical conditions, personalized medicine focuses strongly on wellness and disease prevention.
For example, if a person's genomic information indicates a higher-than-average risk of developing diabetes or a particular form of cancer, that person may choose a lifestyle, or sometimes be prescribed medications, to better regulate the aspects of health and wellness over which he or she has control. The person may benefit in the long run from making preventive lifestyle choices that will help counteract the biological risk.
Genomic medicine may help determine a person's risk of developing several specific medical conditions, including:
• Cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Neurodegenerative diseases
• Diabetes
• Obesity
• Neuropsychiatric disorders
Researchers are actively investigating the genomic and genetic mechanisms behind—and developing predictive testing for—such diverse medical conditions as:
• Infectious diseases, from HIV/AIDS to the common cold
• Ovarian cancer
• Cardiovascular disease
• Diabetes
• Metabolic abnormalities
• Neuropsychiatric conditions, such as epilepsy
• Adverse drug reactions
• Environmental exposure to toxin
10:28 AM
Hawnan Nahian
Internet Marketing Services
