Today’s episode of Have You Herd? with Dr. Fred Gingrich, Executive Director of AABP, is a discussion with Dr. Dick Weinshilboum, an M.D. from the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. Dr. Weinshilboum has been involved in human pharmacogenomic research for over 40 years and was one of the initial investigators of this fascinating field in human medicine. Pharmacogenomics identifies the variety of genetic differences and how these variances might explain an individual’s response to chemicals in their environment. Dr. Weinshilboum explains that there have been twenty drug-gene pairs identified in the human genome for commonly prescribed drugs for which there are genetic variations. He discussed some specific examples of where identifying these drug-gene pairs can prevent an adverse reaction to a drug or improve therapeutic outcome. The primary clinical utility for this application is in cancer therapy, however he also identified the application of pharmacogenomics for treatment of cardiovascular disease with the drug clopidogrel and improving the outcome of treatment of depression with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. Dr. Weinshilboum predicts that there is no doubt pharmacogenomics will have application in veterinary medicine, including guiding antimicrobial therapy, determining how a drug might be metabolized in animals with identifiable genetic variants, and responses to other therapies. He also suggests that veterinary researchers can utilize what has already been discovered in human medicine and apply it to veterinary medicine as the scientific principals are the same and our patients have the advantage of less genetic diversity when applying pharmacogenomics. 

Relevant Research Papers: 

Richard Weinshilboum: Pharmacogenomics – The Future Is Here
Mol Interv. 2003 May;3(3):118-22
https://bit.ly/3nUOGWg

 Pharmacogenomics in Practice.
Wang L, Weinshilboum R.
Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2019 Nov;106(5):936-938.
https://bit.ly/3dthekC

 Pharmacogenomics: Precision Medicine and Drug Response.
Weinshilboum RM, Wang L.
Mayo Clin Proc. 2017 Nov;92(11):1711-1722.
https://mayocl.in/33YCcoy 

Research Directions in the Clinical Implementation of Pharmacogenomics: An Overview of US Programs and Projects.
Volpi S, et. al
Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2018 May;103(5):778-786.
https://ascpt.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/cpt.1048

 Clopidogrel Pharmacogenetics.
Pereira NL, et. al
Circ Cardiovasc Interv. 2019 Apr;12(4):e007811.
https://bit.ly/37bI8N0

Pharmacogenomics-Driven Prediction of Antidepressant Treatment Outcomes: A Machine-Learning Approach With Multi-trial Replication.
Athreya AP, et. al
Clin Pharmacol Ther. 2019 Oct;106(4):855-865.
https://bit.ly/3k73TB6