Personalised Medicine

Most treatments today rely on clinical data taken from “average” patients. However, the way individuals respond to different drugs can vary remarkably even to the point where a an effective dose tolerated by one person could be completely ineffective or even toxic to another. In many cases this is due to the Cytochrome P450 (CYP450) family of proteins which are responsible for the metabolism of most drugs into active forms and/or forms that can be excreted from the body. The CYP450 family is not only large, but different people can express different members of the family and/or express the same members at different levels. Knowing this information is the first step towards delivering personalised medicine, where drug doses are tailored to the individual.

The sequencing of the human genome, identification of gene families (such as CYP450) and a greater understanding of the genetics behind disease and responses to drugs means that doctors are nearer to delivering personalised medicine. New diagnostic tools based on nanotechnology can rapidly and reliably analyse samples from a patient to determine the presence of specific genetic sequences which predispose them to disease or sensitivity to specific drugs, and also the levels and types of proteins that they are producing (such as CYP450 family members).