Monoclonal Antibodies Based on Genotype
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For those of us studying pharmacy, recent advances in genetics are having an increasing impact on our careers. As mapping the human genome becomes more accessible and less expensive, we may find ourselves tailoring pharmaceutical treatments to our patients’ individual genetic information. There are many benefits to this. In current practise, patients are initially prescribed the medication which has proved most effective and cheapest to produce, in the majority of individual cases. If they react poorly to the first drug, health professionals can attempt alternate therapies, until the best option is found. However, if we could predict how patients would react to medication based on genetic information, we could immediately give the medication most likely to work for them, without wasting money and time on trial treatments.
Already, advances in genetics enable treatments to be chosen based on genotype. Monoclonal antibody therapy can be used to treat autoimmune diseases and cancer, and is undergoing clinical trials for many other conditions. This treatment has an advantage over many others, because it targets very specific pathogens and induces an immune response. It can be very successful in some patients, but has no effect on others due to natural variations in the shape of a receptor protein on the surface of immune cells.
The company PIKAMAB has produced a test which determines whether patients are expected to respond well to therapy or not. The test divides patients into 9 groups based on their immune cell receptor types. The company’s CEO suggests that different antibodies should be produced, one to suit each patient type, to maximise effectiveness of monoclonal antibody treatment. If the drug can be optimised, cancer patients may be able to use the treatment without combining it with radiation or other cytotoxic therapies, reducing side effects and increasing quality of life.
Refer to http://www.technologyreview.com/biomedicine/22795/page1/ for further detail.
