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Israeli Scientists En Route to Personalized MS Medicine
Scientists from the Technion in Haifa, Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, and Teva Pharmaceuticals, continuing the success of the Israeli anti-MS drug Copaxone, may have found the way to personalize it according to one's genes.Medical treatments in general rely on trial-and-error methods to determine the correct dosage, often leading to errors and complications along the way. Scientists from Teva performed tests at Weizmann Institute, using Israel's only genome-variation scanning equipment, to determine specific genetic markers and their link with the patient's response to Copaxone. Prof. Doron Lancet of Weizmann's Department of Molecular Genetics says, We analyzed the DNA sequences in 27 candidate genes from each patient participating in the trial, and we identified two genes with a high potential for determining the response to Copaxone. In the future, it may be possible to use this method to scan the genome of MS sufferers, to predict the response levels in advance, and to optimize the dosage and treatment protocol to suit each patient personally. Posted by: gromgoru 2007-10-20 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=203172 |