2008 Here We Come!!!

After some time off thinking about where Personalized Medicine has been headed and where it could go I have come up with some simple conclusions. But first I want refer all of you to my interview with Bertalan Mesko over at ScienceRoll. Bertalan will be headed over to the US and working with me to educate physicians on Medicine 2.0

Why do I refer you to the interview? Because I breakdown molecularly personalized medical services into several categories. There is much confusion as to the term Personalized Medicine. In fact, Helix Health of Connecticut's marketing team has told us based upon their research that some even mistake this field for concierge medicine!!

This article recently released in the New England Journal of Medicine speaks for what I called Personalized Genetics. For those of you who don't know, in 2006 the nobel prize in medicine and physiology was awarded for the discovery of RNA regulation of protein synthesis. This study is a neat expression of this unique technology. By identifying patients with a "Genetic Disorder" (What disease isn't genetic?) researchers have created a new piece of nucleic acid that will actually tell the machinery in the cell to do something other than it was coded to do.

Say Wha? Ok. Muscular Dystrophy is caused by absence of a certain protein called Dystrophin. If muscle cells can't make this protein, then they cannot function. Children often are wheelchair bound before 10. Why can't they make the protein? Usually, the gene which codes for the protein is defective. Its defect causes the gene to protein machinery to stop making the protein very early in its production. This results in a non-functioning protein. This new product PRO051 tells the machinery to pay no attention to the defect. Instead the machinery keeps going and creates a semi-functional protein.

So why is this Personalized? Well, not all people with Duchenne's have the defect required for this medicine to work. But unlike with Lipitor where the therapeutic success rate is anywhere between 40-50%, PRO051 will be effective in approximately 70% of people. Why? 70% of persons with Muscular Dystrophy have the needed mutation. In people with high cholesterol there are multiple different genetic changes as well as environment. But imagine when we can say "You have high cholesterol because of these genes and this environmental exposure. We will cut out this exposure and tweak these genes just a little bit." Voila, No more Lipitor!

Personalized Genetics could become Personalized Medicine...but not yet. I think this author from the NEJM has read my interview too..

"Personalized molecular medicine." As with other catchy terms for big ideas, such as "reversing global warming" and "renewable energy," the concept of personalized molecular medicine is certainly important, but the path to achieving it is far from clear. When such phrases are considered, definitions are important.

Does personalized molecular medicine mean the tailoring of drugs for the individual patient, an approach that evokes images of Bones on Star Trek making instantaneous diagnoses with his Tricorder followed by loud pneumatic injections of customized drugs? Such a concept would place the realization of this technology in the same time frame as the achievement of "warp drive" that hurtled the Enterprise into new galaxies.
On the contrary, personalized molecular medicine appears to be at our doorstep.

Unfortunately, I don't think Dr. Hoffman is aware of Helix Health of Connecticut. Personalized Medicine is at your doorstep too.....

The Sherpa Says: The conclusions are coming. I think Yoda said it best "Patience" This year will require tremendous amounts of it. Francis Collins tells a joke "There is this woman who is married to a research geneticist. He keeps telling her how great their sex life WILL be." Thank you to a certain unnamed TV news series for thinking of me when covering Personal Genomics. I look forward to our discussions. Does anyone think the New Year's Ball looks like an AAV?