Study highlights need for population-specific precision medicine programs in Latin America

The safety and effectiveness of drugs vary widely from one population to another. Genetics is one of the factors contributing to the variability of the drug response. The science of pharmacogenetics, a key factor in precision medicine, studies the differences between individuals in the genetic makeup of metabolism, transport, and molecular drug targets.

A new pharmacogenetic study of 6060 adults in 12 countries in Europe (Spain and Portugal), North America (Mexico), Central America (Costa Rica, Nicaragua), the Caribbean (Cuba) and North America. South (Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador), Peru and Uruguay) reported individual and demographic variations in the major genes of drug metabolizing enzymes. CYP2D6, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19and their expected metabolic phenotypes.

The report entitled "Inter-ethnic variability in CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 Predictive Genes and Phenotypes of Drug Metabolism in 6060 Amerindians and Native Americans: Report of the RIBEF-CEIBA Consortium on Population Pharmacogenomics "is published in OMICS: an integrative biology journal, a peer-reviewed publication of Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Publishers.

Written by the CEIBA-Consortium of the Ibero-American Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics Network RIBEFis the largest study of Iberoamerican and Amerindian populations, which analyzes human genetic variations in the main pathways of drug metabolism, with a view to having functional effects on pharmacokinetics and drug response.

The main authors of the publication, Adrián LLerena, MD, PhD and Eva M. Penãs-Lledó, PhD (University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain), explained that "population pharmacogenomics is an emerging field of global health and deserves in-depth research and teaching". They added that "self-reported ancestry analyzes among 1395 Amerindians and other Ibero-Americans showed marked differences in population in CYP2D6, CYP2C9, and CYP2C19 genes and their predicted phenotypes. In addition, differences were also observed within the Native American sample. "

"The RIBEF-CEIBA consortium report is timely, as diagnostics and precision medicine treatments continue to be deployed around the world, and this study highlights the need for precision medicine programs in particular." addressing a specific population in Latin America ", said Vural özdemir, MD, PhD, DABCP, Editor-in-chief of OMICS, noting also that "the translation of biomarkers into clinical practice requires contextual information and triangulation of evidence on multi-omic technology platforms, as illustrated in the following three key articles published in OMICS":

• "Analysis of Innovation on Postgenomic Biomarkers: Glycomics for Chronic Diseases" by Professor Wei Wang and colleagues (Edith Cowan University, Australia), OMICS 2017; 21 (4): 183-196.
• "Towards a taxonomy for multi-omic science? Terminology Development of Whole Genome Study Approaches by Omics Technology and Hierarchy "by Professor Tanja Kunej and colleagues (University of Ljubljana, Slovenia), OMICS 2017; 21 (1): 1-16.
• "GeneAnalytics: an integrative gene analysis tool for next-generation sequencing, RNAseq data and microchips" by Dr. Gil Stelzer and colleagues (Weizmann Scientific Institute, Israel), OMICS 2016; 20 (3): 139-151.