The ibs.GRANADA organizes a scientific meeting on a European pharmacogenetics project

More than a hundred researchers from different European countries have gathered at the Hospital of the Health Campus of Granada to share the main aspects of an international research project on pharmacogenetics, funded by the European Union with 15 million euros . 

The Hospital Pharmacy unit of the Hospital Complex of Granada participates in this multicenter study, belonging to the Biosanitary Research Institute, which has received more than 800.000 euros to start this project that will allow each patient to give the most appropriate medicine, fewer adverse reactions , thanks to the implementation of a genetic test.

Starting January 1st of next year, Granada hospitals will begin recruiting more than a thousand patients who will be able to benefit from this personalized medicine research, which, according to the person in charge of this study, Cristina Lucía Dávila, she hopes will "become an essential and integral part of medical care in daily clinical practice, since the use of a patient's genetic profile in the individualized choice of pharmacological treatment, instead of choosing a one-size-fits-all regimen, will mark the beginning of safer and more effective drug therapy."

The objective of this program, which involves 35 researchers from eight European countries, is to establish a firm foundation for "making pharmacogenetic data actionable and optimizing accessibility to effective genetic testing-guided treatment for all European citizens," said Henk-Jan Guchelaar, the project's scientific coordinator and head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Toxicology at Leiden University Hospital (Netherlands).

The project will implement the choice of pharmacological treatment based on the genotyping of a panel of genetic markers and will investigate whether this approach is cost-effective and presents better results for patients.

In Spain, the project will be coordinated by Cristina Lucía Dávila and directed by the director of the clinical management unit of Farmacia de Granada, José Cabeza, who explains that numerous studies have shown that some genetic variations in the genes that encode drug transporters and Enzymes that metabolize drugs affect their bioavailability, resulting in under- or overdosing of patients.

This in turn increases the risk of non-response to medications and the occurrence of adverse reactions. Since 2005, the Dutch Pharmacogenetics Working Group has developed clinical practice guidelines that collect information on XNUMX genes that affect drug metabolism and dose recommendations. In this project, the prescription of drugs according to the genetic test and based on these guidelines, will be carried out in seven European countries including Spain.

In our country, the recruitment of patients will be carried out at the Complejo Hospitalario Universitario de Granada and the processing of samples and genotyping at the Pfizer Center-University of Granada-Junta de Andalucía for Genomics and Oncology Research (GENYO).

DNA mapping of 8.000 patients

The ultimate goal of the project is to map the genetic profiles of 8.000 patients, put dosage recommendations into practice, and optimize drug treatment. In addition, various educational activities are planned because there is a great need for training and education of healthcare professionals and patients on the potential of pharmacogenomics.

Collaborations

Since 2012, the Pharmacy and Cardiology units have experience in the implementation of pharmacogenetics in daily clinical practice thanks to a project carried out in patients with unstable angina and acute coronary syndrome who have undergone percutaneous coronary intervention with implantation stent in collaboration with GENYO. This project has been financed by the Andalusian Regional Government Health Council and in 2012 it received the national Best in Class award in personalized medicine. In the same way, the UGC of Pharmacy, in collaboration with those of Cardiology, ICU, Vascular Surgery and Neurology, have received numerous awards in recent years for the different projects carried out in pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine.

This project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Program under Grant Agreement No 668353.