Challenges and opportunities associated with rare-variant pharmacogenomics.

Journal: Trends in pharmacological sciences
Published Date:

Abstract

Recent advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) have resulted in the identification of tens of thousands of rare pharmacogenetic variations with unknown functional effects. However, although such pharmacogenetic variations have been estimated to account for a considerable amount of the heritable variability in drug response and toxicity, accurate interpretation at the level of the individual patient remains challenging. We discuss emerging strategies and concepts to close this translational gap. We illustrate how massively parallel experimental assays, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning can synergize with population-scale biobank projects to facilitate the interpretation of NGS data to individualize clinical decision-making and personalized medicine.

Authors

  • Yitian Zhou
    Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Karolinska Institutet, 171 77 Stockholm, Sweden.
  • Roman Tremmel
    Dr Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, Germany; University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany.
  • Elke Schaeffeler
    Dr Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, and University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
  • Matthias Schwab
    Dr Margarete Fischer-Bosch Institute of Clinical Pharmacology, Stuttgart, and University of Tuebingen, Tuebingen, Germany.
  • Volker M Lauschke
    Unit of Clinical Microbiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.