Pharmacogenomic approaches to therapies in rheumatic diseases

Pharmacogenomics, the study of genetic variations in drug-metabolizing enzymes and their translation to drug effects, is a rapidly evolving field. At the present time, clinicians choose drugs for patients with rheumatologic diseases based on data from population studies and at times, empirically. The application of pharmacogenomics to drugs used in the treatment of rheumatic diseases, particularly the new expensive agents, holds great promise for optimizing their use in clinical practice. In this article, we highlight some of the published literature on the pharmacogenetics of the common disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) and the emerging data on the new biologic therapies. As evident from the contents of this review, this is an exciting field which is progressing productively and rapidly. Pharmacogenomic approaches are clearly the basis of the "individualized" therapies of the future.