Drugs and Genes

Excerpt

Early during this century Garrod (1) described various inborn errors of metabolism and as an extension of his studies suggested that unusual reactions to drugs might be caused by genetically determined aberrations in metabolic pathways. Garrod was far ahead of his time, and little attention was paid to his pioneering observations. Some 50 years later the British geneticist Haldane (2) made similar suggestions to explain untoward drug reactions. In the 1950's when several "idiosyncratic" drug reactions, such as primaquine-induced hemolytic anemias and suxamethonium-induced prolonged apnea, were clearly explained on the basis of genetically determined enzyme deficiencies the field of pharmacogenetics