PURPOSE OF REVIEW Pharmacogenetics is emerging as a field with great potential to improve both our understanding and treatment options in asthma. This review highlights the importance of pharmacogenetic associations of an important class of asthma therapy, the leukotriene modifiers, and asthma.
Recent findings: Over the past decade, different leukotriene modifier therapies have emerged and have resulted in improvements in asthma parameters in individuals with this condition. However, there is substantial interindividual variability with respect to the response to this and other asthma therapies. Over the past few years, polymorphisms of two genes in the leukotriene pathway, the gene and the synthase gene, have been identified and have been demonstrated to have pharmacogenetic associations with asthma. However, currently identified genetic determinants explain the response to therapy in only a minority of patients.
Summary: As the field of pharmacogenetics advances, an increasing proportion of individual variation in response to pharmacotherapy will be predictable on the basis of associations with particular genetic polymorphisms or patterns of polymorphisms. The pharmacogenetic association of leukotriene modifiers and asthma is an excellent example of how these associations hold out the promise of being able to individualize pharmacotherapy, by providing specific medications to those most likely to respond while avoiding therapy in those most likely to suffer adverse effects.