Pharmacogenomic associations of adverse drug reactions in asthma
Asthma is a huge problem worldwide, affecting over 230 million people, and one in eleven young people in the UK.
There are a range of medications used to treat asthma, with multiple mechanisms of action, and distinct side effect profiles. For example, corticosteroids are known to affect children’s growth, weight, mood, and adrenal function. To improve the selection of medications for children with asthma, more than 50 pharmacogenomic studies have been undertaken, and individual polymorphisms are moving closer to inclusion in international guidelines.
In this paper, a systematic review of pharmacogenomic studies capturing adverse drug reactions (ADRs) related to asthma medications was undertaken. Despite the known prevalence and potential severity of asthma medicine related adverse drug reactions, only five pharmacogenomic studies were identified that considered these harms. This shows that the previous work has focussed almost exclusively on the efficacy of these drugs in individuals, not their risk of harm from the medication.
To improve this in the future, work with the Pharmacogenomics in Childhood Asthma (PiCA) consortia was conducted. University of Liverpool is a member of this group, which also includes research active teams from across the world who work collaboratively in paediatric pharmacogenomic research in asthma. Working with this group, a list of the most important side effects of treatment for each drug used in childhood asthma to include in future pharmacogenomic research projects has been developed, to guide future research outcomes and improve the research of adverse drug reactions in children’s asthma.
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