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Caroline Thorn, Curator

Combining large PGx datasets from cancer cell lines

Testing cancer cell lines in vitro for drug sensitivity is a cornerstone of preclinical drug development. Large publically available datasets can be found at The Genomics of Drug Sensitivity in Cancer Project(GDSE) and The Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia (CCLE). Studies attempting to combine large public datasets and analyzing for

CPIC publishes guidelines for DPYD and fluoropyrimidines

The Clinical Pharmacogenetics Implementation Consortium (CPIC) has published guidelines for the use of genetic test results for DPYD in fluoropyrimidine dosing. The guideline in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics recommends strategies for drug dosing or alternative drug choice in cancer patients who have known variants in the dihydropyrimidine dehydrogenase (DPYD) gene

CPIC publishes guidelines for tricyclic antidepressants and CYPs

Guidelines regarding the use of pharmacogenomic tests in dosing for tricyclic antidepressants have been published in Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The guideline focuses on amitriptyline and nortriptyline dosing for individuals with CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 haplotypes being treated for depression. Since most studies have examined the effects of CYP2D6 and CYP2C19

Considerations for automated functional comparisons

Congratulations on a great paper from Sean Mooney's lab and colleagues at the National Center for Biomedical Ontology at Stanford. It shows that when performing high throughput analysis of omics datasets such as microarrays, proteomics etc, combining manually curated GO terms with additional terms found by text mining

FDA to post black box warning on codeine

The FDA has announced they will add a black box warning to the codeine drug label to contraindicate the use of the drug in children after tonsillectomy and/or adenoidectomy (see link). Codeine is a pro-drug that is converted to morphine, a reaction that occurs more efficiently in CYP2D6

CPIC publishes guidelines on interpreting genetic test results for HLA-B*5801 when prescribing allopurinol therapy.

Allopurinol is an analog of the purine base hypoxanthine. It inhibits the conversion of hypoxanthine and xanthine to uric acid by XDH and is used in the treatment of gout. Severe cutaneous adverse reaction, SCAR, also known as allopurinol hypersensitivity syndrome, is a rare serious and sometimes fatal side effect

New VIP gene summary for CYP2E1

A new VIP summary is available for CYP2E1, a member of the cytochrome P450 family of drug metabolizing enzymes. CYP2E1 is constitutively expressed in the liver but makes up less than 1% of the total hepatic P450 isoforms [Article: 20100563]. It metabolizes relatively few prescription drugs (approximately 2%), however its

FDA approves new ERBB2 targeted drug

The FDA approved a new drug for HER2 (ERBB2) positive breast cancer (June 8, 2012). Pertuzumab (Perjeta) is an antibody that targets a different epitope than trastuzumab (Herceptin), the first HER2 targeted antibody drug. The two drugs can therefore be combined to improve efficacy, and this was shown quite successfully