Abstract

GUTIERREZ GUTIERREZ, Reinaldo. Pharmacogenetics: personalized medicine. Rev Cubana Farm [online]. 2004, vol.38, n.3, pp.1-1. ISSN 0034-7515.

Pharmacogenetics is a science that allows to identify the genetic bases of the interindividual differences in the response to drugs. This review article uses a number of published examples of differences inherited in drug-metabolizing enzimes to illustrate the importance of inheritance in the determination of the efficiency and toxicity of drugs in human beings. Although their development is incipient, there are already tests for the mollecular diagnosis by which the physicians and pharmacists may select the drugs and the dosing for each patient in an individual way. The development of pharmacogenetics provides at least one way to prescribe medicines without the usual empirism and to advance towards a more personalized therapy.

Keywords : Pharmacogenetics; drug metabolism; genetic polymorphisms; metabolizing enzimes.