Abstract

Pharmacogenetics of Metabolic Bone Diseases

Francesca Marini and Maria Luisa Brandi

Individual drug response results to be highly variable among treated patients for many of the most commonly prescribed drugs. Common sequence variants in the human genome are today believed to be the main cause of different individual drug response.
Pharmacogenetics applies the principles of both pharmacology and genetics, for the discovery and validation of functional gene polymorphisms that could be relevant in the modulation of the pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics of drugs, in order to be able to predict the personal response to drugs both in terms of beneficial and adverse effects.
A more and more growing number of pharmacogenetic studies have been performed in the last decade, but, to date, only few of them have validated clinical application. This is even more true in the field of bone disorders in which pharmacogenetic studies are still very limited.
This review will offer an overview on current pharmacogenetic applications, especially focusing on
pharmacogenetic studies in the field of osteoporosis and metabolic bone diseases.