[Individualization of drug therapy and pharmacogenetics]

This brief review discusses the relationship between genetic polymorphism of drug metabolizing enzyme and drug's safety and efficacy. When elimination occurs via a single metabolic pathway, individual differences in metabolic rates can lead to large differences in drug and metabolite concentrations in the blood. Genetic polymorphism leads to subpopulation of patients with decreased, absent or even increased activities of certain reactions (e.g., CYP2C19, CYP2D6, CYP2C9, N-acetyltransferase, thiopurine methyltransferase polymorphism). The consequences of a genetic polymorphism include not only altered kinetics of specific drug substrate but idiosyncratic adverse drug reactions. Having these information will aid in determining dosage of certain medications to the patients with an inherited abnormality of drug metabolizing enzyme. Pharmacogenetics already has influenced therapeutics.