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Advancing Precision Medicine in Paediatrics: Past, present and future
Abdelbaset Elzagallaai1, Charlotte Barker2, Tamorah Lewis3
1Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada.
Insights
Precision Medicine tailors treatments using individual variability for better drug efficacy and safety in children. Further research and collaboration are key to advancing this approach for pediatric care.
Area of Science:
- Pharmacogenomics
- Pediatric Therapeutics
- Personalized Medicine
Background:
- Precision Medicine optimizes disease treatment by considering individual genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors.
- Traditional pediatric drug dosing has primarily focused on weight and gestational age, often overlooking genetic variability.
- Advancements in understanding ontogeny and genetics offer new avenues for applying Precision Medicine in pediatric care.
Purpose of the Study:
- To explore the application of Precision Medicine principles in the treatment and prevention of diseases in infants, children, and youth.
- To highlight the potential of Precision Medicine to improve drug efficacy and safety in pediatric populations.
- To identify opportunities and challenges in implementing Precision Medicine for children's healthcare.
Main Methods:
- Review of current knowledge on genetic and developmental influences on drug response in children.
- Analysis of the potential benefits of integrating individual variability into pediatric therapeutic decision-making.
- Identification of key areas for future research, advocacy, and collaborative efforts.
Main Results:
- Precision Medicine offers a holistic approach to enhance drug efficacy and safety in pediatric patients.
- Genetic variability and ontogeny are increasingly recognized as crucial factors in pediatric drug therapy.
- Initial implementation of Precision Medicine in children is expected in specific subgroups.
Conclusions:
- Precision Medicine holds significant promise for advancing safe and effective drug therapy in children.
- Addressing challenges, particularly ensuring equity, is crucial for successful implementation.
- Continued research, advocacy, planning, and teamwork are essential to realize the full potential of Precision Medicine in pediatrics.
Abstract:
Precision Medicine is an approach to disease treatment and prevention taking into account individual genetic, environmental, therapeutic and lifestyle variability for each person. This holistic approach to therapeutics is intended to enhance drug efficacy and safety not only across healthcare systems but for individual patients. While weight and to some extent gestational age have been considered in determining drug dosing in children, historically other factors including genetic variability have not been factored into therapeutic decision making. As our knowledge of the role of ontogeny and genetics in determining drug efficacy and safety has expanded, these insights have provided new opportunities to apply principles of Precision Medicine to the care of infants, children and youth. These opportunities are most likely to be achieved first in select sub-groups of children. While there are many challenges to the successful implementation of Precision Medicine in children including the need to ensure that Precision Medicine enhances rather than reduces equity in children's health care rather, there are many more opportunities. Research, advocacy, planning and teamwork are required to move Precision Medicine forward in children in pursuit of the common goal of safe and effective drug therapy.
