Pharmacogenomics (PGx) entails the study of heritability of drug response. This may include both variability in genes related to pharmacokinetics (drug absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion) and pharmacodynamics (e.g., drug receptors or signaling pathways). Individualizing drug therapy taking into account the genetic profile of the patient has the potential to make drug therapy safer and more effective. Currently, this approach relies on the determination of genetic variants in pharmacogenes by genotyping. However, it is widely acknowledged that large variability in gene expression is attributed to non-structural genetic variants. Therefore, at least from a theoretical viewpoint individualizing drug therapy based upon expression of pharmacogenes rather than on genotype may be advantageous but has been difficult to implement in the clinical setting. Extracellular vesicles (EVs) are lipid encapsulated structures that contain cargo such as lipids, nucleic acids and proteins. Since their cargo is tissue- and cell-specific they can be used to determine the expression of pharmacogenes in the liver. In this review, we describe methods of EV isolation and the potential of EVs isolated from liquid biopsies as a tool to determine the expression of pharmacogenes for use in personalized medicine.
Keywords: cytochrome P450; exosomes; extracellular vesicles; microvesicles; personalized medicine; pharmacogene expression; pharmacogenomics.