Pharmacogenomics in type II diabetes mellitus management: Steps toward personalized medicine

Advances in genotype technology in the last decade have put the pharmacogenomics revolution at the forefront of future medicine in clinical practice. Discovery of novel gene variations in drug transporters, drug targets, effector proteins and metabolizing enzymes in the form of single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) continue to provide insight into the biological phenomena that govern drug efficacy and toxicity. To date, novel gene discoveries extracted from genome-wide association scans and candidate gene studies in at least four antidiabetic drug classes have helped illuminate possible causes of interindividual variability in response. Inadequate protocol guidelines for pharmacogenomics studies often leads to poorly designed studies, making it hard to formulate a definitive conclusion regarding the clinical relevance of the information at hand. These issues, along with the ethical, social, political, legislative, technological, and economic challenges associated with pharmacogenomics have only delayed its entry to mainstream clinical practice. On the other hand, these issues are being actively pursued and rapid progress is being made in each area which assures the possibility of gaining widespread acceptance in clinical practice.