Toward century of pharmacogenetics: The role of genetic epidemiology with cardiovascular diseases as an example

Abstract

Genome research-based medicine is predicted to deliver unprecedented health gains across the entire spectrum of human diseases. The process has already begun and accelerates during the time. The completion of a complex biallelic map of the human genome should open the way to many insights into genomic and environmental interactions that lead to disease. We can expect new insights into pathogenesis, new methods of risk assessment, genetic risk modification in preventive medicine and new therapeutic targets for pharmacy. The gene map will also drive the evolution of new technologies for gene screening - from population methods to the testing of gene variants in individuals. Cardiovascular diseases as multifactorial and polygenic ones are a big challenge at medicine in the next century. The role of genetic epidemiology, as relatively young field, is to supply necessary data about genetic characteristics particular population. The aim is well-defined highrisk haplotype and, of course, the marked primary targets for a new generation of pharmaceutical products for diagnosis and therapy these disorders. This report provides some examples of the associative genetic epidemiological studies of the candidate genes for both dyslipidaemia and hypertension with the basic concepts for such type of investigation.