Fewer side effects of medication through DNA testing

Vera Deneer Patients whose drug treatment is matched to their DNA, suffer 30 percent fewer serious side effects. This is the result from a study published by a team of international researchers, including Vera Deneer , associate professor of clinical pharmacology at the Utrecht Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences (UIPS) and her colleague Heshu Abdullah-Koolmees , in The Lancet. This is the first publication worldwide, to show that prescribing drugs based on a patient's DNA profile works in practice. The project was coordinated by the LUMC. The effects of drugs on patients differ, because they have different genetic profiles. Variations in certain genes determine, for example, the enzyme activity and the rate at which the body converts the drug into other substances. Customized treatment therefore, means that the dosage of the drug, or the type of drug, is tailored entirely to the patient's genetic profile.