Genetic control of drug metabolism and drug action in man.
Raghupati Sarma, G.
Biomedicine; 1985; 8; 3-11.
The study of genetic factors that modify the individual response to drugs, referred to as "pharmacogenetics" is relatively new field, a discipline at the interface between genetic and clinical pharmacology. In the short period since Motulsky (1) emphasized the importance of genetics to pharmacology and Vogel coined the term "pharmacogenetics", an impressive number of examples in man has accumulated in which inherited differences account for strikingly exaggerated responses to drugs, novel drug effects, or lack of effectiveness of drugs given in the usual dosage. More recently, we have come to realize that genetic factors are in large measure responsible for the individual variability in response to drugs conferring on each patient a "pharmacologic individuality".
The objectives of pharmacogenetics include the identification of genetically controlled variations in response to drugs and the study of the molecular basis for these conditions, their clinical significance, and most important, the development of simple methods by which susceptible individuals can be recognized before the drug is administered.
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