Personalized Medicine

Personalized Medicine By: Rick Reichow What is Personalized Medicine?  Personalized medicine is a form of supplying medication that will improve health based on one‟s individual needs  The goal is to recognize diseases and what would cure them faster and more effectively The Sciences Behind It  Personalized medicine is grounded in a science called pharmacogenomics, which is concerned with developing drug therapies to suit people‟s genetic differences  Other sciences involved in the development of personalized medicines are metabolomics, genomics, and proteomics Need for More Specific Drugs  Many people have similar symptoms, but completely different diseases  Others have the same diseases, but very different symptoms  Personalized medicines will work as diagnostic tools and for treatment purposes Personalized Medicine‟s Pros Diseases could be instantly prognosticated  Many could be located by genetic precursors at an early age  People who have the same disease may need different treatments and personalized medicines would recognize these needs  Personalized Medicine‟s Cons  “‟[Personalized medicine] is still in its infancy,‟ says Richard Beger, Ph.D., biophysicist and director of the NCTR‟s center of metabolomics.”  With the new possibilities this technology would provide, many Ethical issues arise Bioethics  All sciences return at some point to the struggle between the scientific world and the religious world  In theory, this medicine would lead to the ability to mold the human form  For example: DNA could be altered to make people who are perfect in everyway How it Could Work  When personalized medicine becomes a reality doctors will be able to take small samples from you and test for irregularities in one‟s DNA or metabolism  This will replace the numerous tests that are required in hospitals today The First of its Kind  A few companies have already begun the advance to personalized drugs  Large Scale Biology, which has recently declared bankruptcy because of low funding, had begun work on a cancer vaccine for Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma  This vaccine utilizes the fact that all Bcells have different markers. Personalized Medicines, cont.  In this way the proteins that must be attached to the B cells would vary from patient to patient  It attaches a tumor protein to the very specific receptor molecules in a way that causes the body‟s own immune system to recognize and attack the cancerous B cells Researchable Question How can medicines for high cholesterol be further focused to work on the individual level? On the Road to Personalized Drugs  Cholesterol medicines have also been starting toward personalization as researchers have noticed varying effectiveness amongst differing genders and ethnicities  It seems that these groups have higher concentrations of certain lipoproteins Cholesterol Variants Only a few years earlier it was believed that only one type of high-density lipoprotein and one type of low-density lipoprotein existed  Now we have 6 different subclasses of HDPs and 4 of LDPs  Possible Path to Discovery  In order to move toward truly personalized medicines for lowering cholesterol these subclasses must be further studied until more detail is known about the lipoproteins, such as slight differences in shape and actions  The fact also remains that if these variant types of lipoproteins were found only recently that there may still be some undiscovered References 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. [Anonymous] “Non-Hodgkin‟s Lymphoma Personalized Cancer Vaccines” LSB corp., 2005 http://www.lsbc.com/ Merritt, Richard “Lipids Vary By Race, Gender” Duke University, 2004 http://www.dukemednews.org/news/article.php?id=8190 Lanfear, David Md., Marsh, Sharon PhD., Cresci, Sharon Md., Shannon, William Phd., Spertus, John Md., McLeod, Howard PhD. “Lymphoma Vaccine Enters Large-Scale Clinical Trials” Washington University, 2003 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6T184CRXMCG14&_coverDate=07%2F07%2F2004&_alid=430442860&_rdoc=1&_fmt=&_orig =search&_qd=1&_cdi=4884&_sort=d&view=c&_acct=C000059598&_version=1 &_urlVersion=0&_userid=4421&md5=97658b9bda37517f8385d2e40ad4d202 Woodcock, Janet Md. “Pharmacogenomics: On the Road to „Personalized Medicine‟” U.S. Food and Drug Administration http://www.fda.gov/fdacdeparts/2005/605_word.html Bren, Linda “Metabolomics: Working Toward Personalized Medicine” U.S. Food and Drug Administration, 2006 http://www.fda.gov/fdac/features/2005/605_metabolomics.html