April 25, 2008

Purdue-developed genomics tool could lead to better medicine

While consumers and pharmacists are well aware that prescription drug interactions can be dangerous, the fact that each person's genetic makeup can render certain drugs dangerous or even deadly is not widely recognized, said Michael D. Kane, co-principal investigator on the project and an assistant professor in the Department of Computer and Information Technology.

"Specific genetic differences within the population can increase the risk of an adverse drug reaction, and can contribute to prescription drugs being pulled off the market," said Kane, who also is lead genomic scientist at Bindley Bioscience Center in Purdue's Discovery Park and a former senior scientist at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. "Even though drugs are tested extensively, some people don't metabolize drugs in the same way."

"Previously, there has been no way for doctors and pharmacists to access and make sense of this information, so what we are doing could drastically improve patient safety and care in coming years."

Kane is collaborating on this project with John A. Springer, an assistant professor of computer and information technology at Purdue. He and Springer recently were awarded a one-year $100,000 Microsoft Research grant to fund further assessment and testing of the project, as well as train physicians and pharmacists on how to implement the system. It is currently in use as an instructional tool in the Ohio Northern University School of Pharmacy curriculum.

The project, titled "PGRx: An Interactive Software System for Integrating Clinical Genotyping with Prescription Drug Safety Assurance," is one of six projects to be funded by Microsoft Research's Computational Challenges of Genome Wide Association Studies program nationwide and the only project funded from Purdue.

In the system, a patient's genetic profile would be one factor in determining drug type and dosage, along with commonly used factors such as age, weight, general health and interactions with other drugs the patient may be taking.

If a patient is prescribed a drug where an adverse response has been associated with a specific genetic makeup, the patient's electronic health record would indicate that the patient is at risk for an adverse reaction. Kane said that in some cases certain patients may require an altered dose of the prescribed drug, or an alternate drug altogether.

"Right now, the only way a person's reaction to a drug can be determined is by starting them on a low dose, then adjusting and testing as needed," he said. "If we can use genetics to make this known immediately, in many cases we can reach a safe and effective dose more rapidly and reduce prescription drug costs."

Kane said the information is kept in a secure database and would initially contain genetic information only as it relates to drug metabolism, not risk of disease, which is the basis of pharmacogenetics.

"Some people may be concerned about their having genetic information in a database, but what health-care professionals will have access to is not information on how likely a patient is to develop specific health disorders," he said. "Having this ‘gene-drug’ interaction information available actually benefits the patient, employer and insurance provider since overall health-care costs would be minimized by avoiding adverse drug reactions."

Kane said taking genetic information into account when developing new drugs also would lead to a more efficient and specialized drug-development process.

"For instance, if a company makes a drug for a condition like schizophrenia, it may only work in a fraction of the affected population. If we have data based on genetic information, however, that company may be able to make multiple drugs, and nearly all of the affected population would be treated by one of them," Kane said. "Drug discovery efforts are becoming much more focused on the genetic basis of the disease, which will eventually translate into more profits for the company and less frustration for the patient."

Kane said information about who can genetically tolerate certain medications is already included in the drug information literature available to doctors and pharmacists for warfarin, which is the largest selling anticoagulant drug, and he predicts pharmacogenetic screening will be a widespread practice within a decade.

Writer: Kim Medaris, (765) 494-6998, kmedaris@purdue.edu 

Sources: Michael Kane, (765) 494-2564, mdkane@purdue.edu 

John Springer, (765) 496-7582, jaspring@purdue.edu

Purdue News Service: (765) 494-2096; purduenews@purdue.edu

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