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EDITED
BY ADAM
body
J. M ARTIN
BREAKTHROUGH:
A genetictest
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the right drug and
doseon the firsttry.
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PHOTOGRAPHY
BY MICHAEL
HEIKO
iar with this nightnriue. Her
1."n1,',,.',rthistorv reads like
a litany ol-ntedicirl rnishaps:
Soon aftcr she st:rlted taking an antidepressant, her
b l o o d p r e s su l e sh o t tr p .
lir cruirit her'(k)ct(t'prcscribeda beta-blocker',
but it left her fceling
light-headed. Then,
l ol l ow i n g an unr elat ed surgery,the doctor
treated her pain wit h
. codeine-which, instead
of relief, gave her nausea
and constipation.
That was the last strawJackson
soon contacted David Flockhart.
M.D., Ph.D.,a clinicalpharmacologist who researcheshow genesaffect
people's responsesto drugs. She
had seenhim give a lecture and >
healt h
o
o
F
l
t
l
@
Obody lnovnNcEs
whether your body is capableof retalking about it'"
thought he could help. She was insteadofjust
antidepressants'
Already,'he.tot"r, ih. technology acting properly to
right. Specialtesting conducted by
antibiotics' and
cI-t1in
help treat chil'd- painkillers'
Flockhart,who serveson a U.S.Food is being .rr.d to
pressure'asthblood
Beyond that' mil- drugs for high
and Drug Administration (FDA) hood leukemia'
might be good ma' high cholesterol'and diabetes'
advisorycommirreefbr clinicalphar- lions more people
ih. tests' Roughly The screensalsowork for a number
macology, revealed that a genetic candidat., io,
drugs' such as
body 8 percent of whites, 2 percent of of over-the-counter
quirk waspreventingJackson's
relievers'
pain
and
and I percent antihistamines
from making an enzymeneeded to African-Americans,
z
;
lu
b re a k d o w n a n u mb e ro ffre q uentl yofA si anshavethesameoddw i ri ngThemaker.ofthetest
t hat 'scur . are
studies show that rently availablesayspeople who
prescribeddrugs, includi.,g eroru., asJackson.And
of the popula- especiallyprone to bad reactionsare
beta-blockers,and codeine.The med- roughly two-thirds
with drugs for likely to benefit the most' Flockhart
icationswere simply building up in tion have trouble
as depres- saysthat screeningshould also make
her system and creating havoc. But such common conditions
who need antidesion and high blood pressure,while sensefor people
now, thanks in part tJFlockhart,s
pressantsor other psychiatricmedget relief from
work, Jackson scrupulously avoids only about"a third
or migraines' icines'aswell ascertaincancerdrugs
medicines that could .u.rr. n-lor. medicinesfor asthm-a
problems than theYsolve,and she's
il* ff#*J*i.il;;'*;
beingtested'
cantelllou whether
Justa smallbloodsample
t '"
J ^ 'ttibiotics
unnri)nhroccnnlc
'
hnit
And Qr
fortunat.'Antidepress1nts,p1inkillers,
^ r^*rrn,rp
are
NJt*u.y people
or useless'
harmfut,
,,JIb; helpful,
;l?lf;l[fffi:1"'#T?3'11
to Flockhart's
screeningtest similar
recentlyhitthemarket,andanother
is on the way.Even though the tests
have yet to be evaluar.? i. 1".g.scale clinical trials and the FDA
hasn't approved them yet for widespreaduse,expertsin the field, like
Richard weinshilboum, M.D., of
the Mayo Clinic, expect them to become standard in doctors' offices
,,For the
sometime in the future.
vastbulk of patients,this will be an
important factor lbr many drugs,"
weinshilboum says."we'll be able
to actually individualize therapy
so for many people, finding the
right drug or dosagecan take severll trips'to the doltor and cause
annoying, if not life-threatening'
delaysin lffective treatment' Indeed'
bad reactions to drugs are among
the top l0 causesof death in the
United States'
The new testsmight help people
avoid such side effectsand get better quicker by showing how (or if;
they-'llrespond to ceriain medicatior',..u.n before they take them'
reveal
Just a smallblood samplecan
which drugs work for you?
r F you WANTTO FtNDOUT,call seryx lnc.toll-freeat877-243'6384
Genetics
I to locatea doctor in your areawho offersthe Signature
i"r..orts anywherefrom 5600io 51,100and hasn't
I ;a;;:;,iri"
been embraced (not yet, anyway)by the medical establishment'
wont more informationt
n"Tiilt'iii"i tt iiexplain how your body reactsto medications:
F
l
f
v
3;ffi:iil:il'""o.'oinn
The SigAmong the dividends:
nature Genetics test' from Cherry
Serlx Inc' InHill' NewJersey-based
t'roducedlast year' it can red-flag po
tential problems with threequarters
of the 200 most-prescribedmedicadons. The catch:It coss about $600,
and the price almost doubles if it
revealsanomalies that warrant a detailed list of do's and don'ts for how
illnessesshould be treated'
The Swisspharmaceutical com-
o NationalInstituteof GeneralMedicalSciences
www.nigms.nih'9ov/funding/medforyou'html
o AmericanAssociationfor ClinicalChemistry
www.aacc.orglpharmacogenetics
Association
o AmericanPharmacists
w w w .a p h a n e t.o rg l 9 o Wp o| i cycomm2000/pharmacobackground.htm| panyR ocher ecent lydeveloped
i test that may cost hundreds of
l
-/lf,
liketamoxifen(fiorbreastcancerffeatment and prevention)-all of which
haveto be takenfor weeksbeforeyou
know whether they work'
The testsmay be new' but the sciencebehind them isn't' Researchers
have known since the 1950sthat
some people react badly to medication becausetheir bodies don't pro
duceenoughenzvmesto breakdown
underlyingchemicals'But thesefindings didn't createmuch of a stir until the 1990s'when technological
advancesand a massiveeffort to decipher the human genomelet scien-
he a lth
Obody
t'
i\ I) \',,\
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r
h
NOSITVER
BULIET:
lfyour prescriptions
aren'tdoing their
jobyour genesmay
b€ the problem.
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