Pharmacogenomics (PgX) Panel:
This panel investigates drug sensitivity, and the way the body reacts to various medications. This test determines which medications are most appropriate based on the genetic build of individuals.
What We Offer:
The PGX panel is a comprehensive panel that assesses 18 genes for variations known to have effects on the efficacy of pharmacological drugs. The report is easy for your doctor to understand and includes all pertinent research. This will allow your doctor to choose the right drugs for you as an individual. A PGX panel is the only data available that imperatively shows which drugs are right for you. This allows for the safest, most effective, and most cost-effective tailored medication plan cultivated by your doctor.
Purpose of the PgX Test:
Many drugs that are currently available are “one size fits all,” but they do not work the same way for everyone. It can be difficult to predict who will benefit from a medication, who will not respond at all, and who will experience negative side effects (called adverse drug reactions). Adverse drug reactions are a significant cause of hospitalizations and deaths in the United States. The PgX test will be used to develop tailored drugs to treat a wide range of health problems, including cardiovascular disease, pain management, psychiatric conditions, neurology, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, and asthma. The goal of the PgX test is to help doctors select the drugs and doses best suited for each person. It is part of the field of precision medicine, which aims to treat each patient individually.
What Medications Are Covered by PgX Testing:
The cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes are proteins that play a pivotal role in the detoxification of chemicals, antibiotics, and various other medications, and take part in cellular metabolism. Induction or inhibition of CYP enzymes is a major mechanism that underlies drug metabolism. For instance, one liver enzyme, known as CYP2D6, acts on a quarter of all prescription drugs. For example, it converts the painkiller codeine into its active form, morphine. There are more than 160 versions of the CYP2D6 gene. Many vary by only a single difference in their DNA sequence. Others have larger changes. Some of these variants affect how people respond to the drug. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) monitors drug safety in the United States. It now includes pharmacogenomic information on the labels of approximately 200 medications. This information can help doctors tailor drug prescriptions for individual patients by providing guidance on dose, possible side effects, or differences in effectiveness for people with certain gene variants.
How Will I Benefit?
If you require a daily medication or will be placed on a daily medication, this test is a necessity. Medications for the heart, blood pressure, cholesterol, depression, anxiety—all work on a physiological level by affecting different pathways in our bodies. While in theory, all of our pathways should be the same, they are not due to genetic variations in the population. These genetic variations often don’t impact daily life and would largely go unnoticed. However, once a medication is introduced that works on a pathway where that individual differs, the consequences can be severe. Sometimes the medication simply just won’t work—for example, medication A works by binding an enzyme you don’t produce. Other times it can be deadly. Depending on the individual’s variations, hypersensitivity and toxicity can result from just a single dose of the wrong medication.
Method:
The PgX test measures variants in genes (some listed below) that affect the body’s response to medications. These genetic differences will be used to predict whether a medication will be effective for a particular person and which dose will help prevent adverse drug reactions.
What Is a PgX Variant:
Genes are instructions, written in DNA, for building protein molecules. Different people can have different versions of the same gene. Each version has a slightly different DNA sequence. Some of these variants are common, and some are rare. Some affect health, such as those gene variants linked to response to medications and their metabolism.
Limitations of Testing:
The PgX report provides information on how your body will metabolize drugs, which may be helpful in choosing medications. It is, however, only one component of how a person may react to any drug. Drug reactions may be caused by other mechanisms apart from the known effect of the drug itself. These include hypersensitivity reactions (allergies), intolerance, and drug interactions. The PgX report can be used as an aid in choosing medications but must be used in conjunction with previous medical history and other medical information available to your health care practitioner.
Sources:
- Basic Review of the Cytochrome P450 System, PMID: 25032007
- What is pharmacogenomics? nigms.nih.gov
- medlineplus.gov/genetics