+44 330 818 7254Ravi Kumar Gutti, Bhaskarrao Chinthapalli and D.S. Vijaya Chitra
Biotechnology is about to change health care and its delivery in profound ways. The new genomic tools emerging from the biotechnology have revolutionized medicine and transformed our understanding of health and the provision of healthcare. Its implications pervade all areas of medicine, from disease prediction and prevention to the diagnosis and treatment of all forms of diseases. In the past 5-10 years genomics, proteomics and high-throughput microarray technologies gave understanding of the molecular basis of cells and tissues in health and diseases such as tumor classification and prognostication. Personalized medicine is the concept that patients should be treated with therapies and medicines based specifically on each patient’s unique genetic makeup, for optimal results. Applied biotechnologies arising from genomics will be used for effective prediction of diseases and risks associated with drugs. However, the introduction of biotechnology based tests into routine health care requires both a demonstration of cost-effectiveness, and availability of appropriate accessible testing systems. A major movement in healthcare is pharmacogenomics. Pharmacogenomics takes advantage of the fact that individuals have unique genomes which is likely to react differently to a particular drug and dose amount. The discovery of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was one of the major breakthroughs in genetic testing. Approximately 10 million SNPs have been identified in the human genome. In US alone, an estimated $30 to $45 billion is spent annually on diagnostic laboratory services, and the gene-based testing component is growing at an annual rate of 25 percent. Scientists are studying gene therapies for a number of inherited human diseases involving defective genes, by replacing them with new, functional genes. Stem cell therapy aim is to replace the damaged cells with healthy, disease-free cells-hence the term regenerative medicine for this approach. This review is an attempt to understand how biotechnology should transform the traditional medications that are effective for every member of the population to personalize medicine and therapy
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