Pharmacogenomics: challenges and future perspectives

Abstract

Pharmacogenetics is the science of understanding how genetic variability influences drug treatment outcomes and generally refers to the effects of a single genetic marker on pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of medications. Pharmacogenomics refers to the collective influence of variability across the genome to modulate an individual’s drug response profile. Pharmacoepigenetics is the study of the epigenetic marking patterns that lead to variation in an individual’s response to medical treatment. Pharmacoepigenomics is the application of pharmacoepigenetics on a genome-wide scale. Precision medicine/personalized medicine supposes the adaptation of medical treatment to the individual characteristics of each patient and the possibility of identifying patients who differ in their susceptibility to experiencing a certain disease, in biology or prognosis of this disease, or in the response to a certain treatment.