My understanding is that for clinical trials, they essentially look at the dna “history” of each person with a disease (among other things), looking for common traits or mutations. How does this information then relate to what drugs they’re going to start testing?
If I find a common trait, do you want common symptoms to start treating them?
Apologize if my understanding is completely butchering reality
In: Biology
I’ll give a simple example. They might have a drug that works well in 30% of patients. Why? Why not in all patients? Genetic testing might reveal the answer. Maybe those 30% have a genetic trait that makes them particularly susceptible to the drug effectiveness. That’s good to know and might make the difference between a successful trial and a failed trial. Now they know the drug works, but only on certain patients that must first be pre-screened for that trait.
Maybe they have a difference in a receptor. Or maybe their liver clears the drug differently. Or maybe their body ‘sees’ the drug better at the sight of action.
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