Scientists Develop New Concept With Potential To Help Predict How Individuals Ma

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Scientists Develop New Concept With Potential To Help Predict How

Individuals May Respond To Drugs

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=41962

Scientists from Imperial College London and Pfizer have developed a

new method that could predict individual patient responses to drug

treatments. The authors anticipate that the development will advance

biomedical research further towards development of personalised

medicines.

Research published today in Nature demonstrates the new 'pharmaco-

metabonomic' approach that uses a combination of advanced chemical

analysis and mathematical modelling to predict drug-induced responses

in individual patients. The method is based on analysis of the body's

normal metabolic products, metabolites, and metabolite patterns that

are characteristic of the individual. The authors hypothesize that

these individual patterns can be used to diagnose diseases, predict

an individual's future illnesses, and their responses to treatments.

Not all drugs are effective in all patients and in rare cases adverse

drug reactions can occur in susceptible individuals. To address this,

researchers from Imperial College and Pfizer have been exploring new

methods for profiling individuals prior to drug therapy. The new

approach, if successful, requires the analysis of the metabolite

profiles of an individual from a urine, or other biofluid, sample.

The researchers tested their approach by administering paracetamol to

rats and measuring how it affected their livers and how it was

excreted. Before giving the dose they measured the levels of the

natural metabolites in the rats' urine. Metabolites being small

molecules produced by normal body functions, they can indicate a

body's drug response. After creating a 'pre-dose urinary profile' for

each rat, the researchers used computer modelling to relate the

nature of the pre-dose metabolite profile to the nature of the post-

dose response.

Professor Nicholson, from Imperial College London, who led the

research, says: " This new technique is potentially of huge importance

to the future of healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.

The 'pharmaco-metabonomic' approach is able to account for genetic as

well as many environmental factors, and other important contributors

to individual health such as the gut microfloral activity. These

factors strongly influence how an individual absorbs and processes a

drug and also influence their individual metabolism, making this new

approach the first step towards the development of more personalised

healthcare for large numbers of patients. "

The discovery of this new technology for predicting responses to

drugs, which is not limited to individual genetic differences, will

hopefully be a key component in the pharmaceutical industry's aim to

understand how patients might benefit from more individualised

therapies. The new method is expected to be synergistic with existing

pharmacogenomic approaches.

The new methodology is in early stage of development and will be

studied in humans to evaluate its possible clinical application. The

researchers hope this new technique might one day allow doctors to

personalise drug treatments for some individuals, providing

physicians with the ability to prescribe medicines that will be most

effective for certain patient groups, and at a tailored dose-range

for maximum efficacy and safety.