Jayden Lee, EMBA, PharmD, BCACP & Husna Rahim, PharmD
Pharmacogenomics: Effective and reliable Clinical Trials for Depression. With mental health taking center stage post-COVID-19 pandemic, what are some new ways to improve the treatment of depression? One potential avenue is through pharmacogenomics (PGx), which aims to personalize medication regimens based on an individual’s genetic makeup (Singh 2015). By conducting clinical trials that incorporate PGx principles, researchers may be able to identify high-risk genotypes, optimize medication selection, and minimize adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
Matching patients with most suitable doses from the outset of a trial. Identifying high-risk genotypes may guide appropriate patient population selections for a particular drug trial. By understanding how a person’s genetics affect how their body processes and responds to a drug, researchers can match the right patient populations with the most suitable doses from the outset of a trial. With this targeted approach, clinical trials can provide information about different responses based on genetic data and enable more individualized treatments.
Depressive disorders affect nearly 280 million people worldwide (World Health Organization, 2023). PGx-mediated clinical trials may be the key to Improving medication efficacy. In a recent double-blind, randomized controlled trial involving 450 patients with major depressive disorder, PGx testing significantly improved remission rates. 31% of PGx testing patients were in remission after 8 weeks compared to 22% receiving standard care. This 9% absolute difference demonstrates how PGx insights can help more patients achieve remission faster (Cheng et al. 2023).
280 million worldwide suffer from depression. Another advantage of using PGx in clinical trials is its potential to identify patients who are at risk for ADRs. Several frequently prescribed antidepressants are metabolized by the polymorphic CYP450 enzyme system, leading to interindividual variability in drug exposure and risk for ADRs. Testing for variants in these metabolizing genes could help match patients to medications or doses they are genetically predisposed to benefit from while avoiding serious side effects.
Tailored approaches show promise in treating depression. Integrating PGx testing and modeling into depression trials could help address current limitations and inform the development of precision dosing clinical support systems tailored for psychiatry. With continued research, pharmacogenomics may finally fulfill its potential to personalize depression treatment and improve outcomes for patients worldwide.
Learn more about UGenome’s Personalized Medication Service, ProPEx, or contact UGenome. You can also find case studies for UGenome’s bioinformatics services Metabolite Identification, Bone Metastasis Risk Analysis in Breast Cancer, Survival Analysis with gene signatures in cancer.
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