[Personalised hepatology - current concepts, developments and expectations in the post-genome era]

Abstract

Promoted by the decoding of the human genome as part of the human genome project, individualised therapy approaches have become a realistic perspective for therapies that are more effective, less prone to side effects and economically reasonable. This also applies to chronic liver disease. With the aim not only to expand the current knowledge base through basic research on the underlying disease processes and treatment options but also to identify and characterise biomarkers, the creation of genetic fingerprints for individualised diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients takes its place in the centre of translational hepatology. For certain liver diseases personalised therapy approaches are already existent. Examples are the determination of viral genotypes, viral kinetics and genotyping of the IL28B polymorphism to optimise the treatment of chronic hepatitis C. The challenges of the next few years relate to the broadening of the knowledge base, the establishment of reliable and standardised technologies, and the development of intelligent bioinformatics strategies for data analysis and data integration. The following review not only summarises the current state of progress and possibilities of personalised medicine in hepatological diseases, but also explains the technical background of the limitations that currently hinder a consistent clinical implementation.