title: Pharmacogenetics of disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs.
abstract: The outcome of treatment with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs) in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients is considerably variable and is also unpredictable. It would be useful clinically if physicians were able to predict responses to DMARDs prior to their administration. One possible cause of differences in efficacy and adverse drug reactions is genetic variation in how individuals metabolize drugs. Based on pharmacogenetics, tailor-made drug therapy, also called personalized drug therapy or individual drug therapy, will be possible with analysis of genetic polymorphism, such as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), and analysis of haplotype and diplotype configuration. Several studies of the correlation between the genetic polymorphism of enzymes metabolizing several DMARDs and efficacy or adverse drug reactions have already been reported, suggesting that pharmacogenetics will be applicable to the treatment of RA in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Rheumatology, Tokyo Women's Medical University, 10-22 Kawada-cho, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo 162-0054, Japan. e-tanaka@tkg.att.ne.jp
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Tanaka
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Taniguchi
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Urano
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yamanaka
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kamatani
mesh_terms: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents / Q000493:pharmacokinetics* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001172:Arthritis, Rheumatoid / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D010597:Pharmacogenetics
chemical_list: D018501:Antirheumatic Agents