Genomics and pharmacogenomics of brain disorders.

CNS disorders are the third major problem of health in developed countries, with approximately 10% of direct costs associated with a pharmacological treatment of doubtful cost-effectiveness. There is an alarming abuse of psychotropic drugs worldwide and only 20-30% of patients with CNS disorders appropriately respond to conventional drugs. The pathogenesis of most CNS disorders is the result of the interplay of genetic and epigenetic factors with environmental factors leading to post-transcriptional changes and proteomic and metabolomic dysfunctions. It is estimated that genetics accounts for 20% to 95% of variability in drug disposition and pharmacodynamics, and about 25-60% of the Western population is defective in genes responsible for drug metabolism. In the European population only 25% of subjects are pure extensive metabolizers for the trigenic cluster integrated by the CYP2D6, CYP2C19 and CYP2C9 genes. About 50% of adverse drug events in CNS disorders might be attributed to pharmacogenomic factors. The rationale for practical pharmacogenomics and personalized therapeutics based on individual genomic profiles implies the management of different types of genes and their products including (i) genes associated with the mechanism of action of psychotropic drugs (neurotransmitters, receptors, transporters), (ii) genes encoding enzymes responsible for drug metabolism (phase I, phase II reactions), (iii) disease-specific genes associated with a particular pathogenic cascade, and (iv) pleiotropic genes with multilocative effects in metabolomic networks. The incorporation of genomic medicine procedures and pharmacogenomics into clinical practice, together with educational programs for the correct use of medication, must help to optimize therapeutics in CNS disorders.

Genomics and pharmacogenomics of dementia.

Dementia is a major problem of health in developed countries, and a prototypical paradigm of chronic disability, high cost, and social-family burden. Approximately, 10-20% of direct costs in this kind of neuropathology are related to pharmacological treatment, with a moderate responder rate below 30% and questionable cost-effectiveness. Over 200 different genes have been associated with the pathogenesis of dementia. Studies on structural and functional genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics have revealed the paramount importance of these novel technologies for the understanding of pathogenic cascades and the prediction of therapeutic outcomes in dementia. About 10-30% of Western populations are defective in genes of the CYP superfamily. The most frequent CYP2D6 variants in the Iberian peninsula are the *1/*1 (57.84%), *1/*4 (22.78%), *1×N/*1 (6.10%), *4/*4 (2.56%), and *1/*3 (2.01%) genotypes, accounting for more than 80% of the population. The frequency of extensive (EMs), intermediate (IMs), poor (PMs), and ultra-rapid metabolizers (UMs) is about 59.51%, 29,78%, 4.46%, and 6.23%, respectively, in the general population, and 57.76, 31.05%, 5.27%, and 5.90%, respectively, in AD cases. The construction of a genetic map integrating the most prevalent CYP2D6+CYP2C19+CYP2C9 polymorphic variants in a trigenic cluster yields 82 different haplotype-like profiles, with *1*1-*1*1-*1*1 (25.70%), *1*1-*1*2-*1*2 (10.66%), *1*1-*1*1-*1*1 (10.45%), *1*4-*1*1-*1*1 (8.09%), *1*4-*1*2-*1*1 (4.91%), *1*4-*1*1-*1*2 (4.65%), and *1*1-*1*3-*1*3 (4.33%), as the most frequent genotypes. Only 26.51% of AD patients show a pure 3EM phenotype, 15.29% are 2EM1IM, 2.04% are pure 3IM, 0% are pure 3PM, and 0% are 1UM2PM. EMs and IMs are the best responders, and PMs and UMs are the worst responders to a combination therapy with cholinesterase inhibitors, neuroprotectants, and vasoactive substances. The pharmacogenetic response in AD appears to be dependent upon the networking activity of genes involved in drug metabolism and genes involved in AD pathogenesis (e.g., APOE). AD patients harboring the APOE-4/4 genotypes are the worst responders to conventional antidementia drugs. To achieve a mature discipline of pharmacogenomics in CNS disorders and dementia it would be convenient to accelerate the following processes: (i) to educate physicians and the public on the use of genetic/genomic screening in daily clinical practice; (ii) to standardize genetic testing for major categories of drugs; (iii) to validate pharmacogenomic information according to drug category and pathology; (iv) to regulate ethical, social, and economic issues; and (v) to incorporate pharmacogenomic procedures both to drugs in development and drugs on the market in order to optimize therapeutics.

Genomics and pharmacogenomics of schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is among the most disabling of mental disorders. Several neurobiological hypotheses have been postulated as responsible for SCZ pathogenesis: polygenic/multifactorial genomic defects, intrauterine and perinatal environment-genome interactions, neurodevelopmental defects, dopaminergic, cholinergic, serotonergic, gamma-aminobutiric acid (GABAergic), neuropeptidergic and glutamatergic/N-Methyl-D-Aspartate (NMDA) dysfunctions, seasonal infection, neuroimmune dysfunction, and epigenetic dysregulation. SCZ has a heritability estimated at 60-90%. Genetic studies in SCZ have revealed the presence of chromosome anomalies, copy number variants, multiple single-nucleotide polymorphisms of susceptibility distributed across the human genome, aberrant single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in microRNA genes, mitochondrial DNA mutations, and epigenetic phenomena. Pharmacogenetic studies of psychotropic drug response have focused on determining the relationship between variation in specific candidate genes and the positive and adverse effects of drug treatment. Approximately, 18% of neuroleptics are major substrates of CYP1A2 enzymes, 40% of CYP2D6, and 23% of CYP3A4; 24% of antidepressants are major substrates of CYP1A2 enzymes, 5% of CYP2B6, 38% of CYP2C19, 85% of CYP2D6, and 38% of CYP3A4; 7% of benzodiazepines are major substrates of CYP2C19 enzymes, 20% of CYP2D6, and 95% of CYP3A4. About 10-20% of Western populations are defective in genes of the CYP superfamily. Only 26% of Southern Europeans are pure extensive metabolizers for the trigenic cluster integrated by the CYP2D6+CYP2C19+CYP2C9 genes. The pharmacogenomic response of SCZ patients to conventional psychotropic drugs also depends on genetic variants associated with SCZ-related genes. Consequently, the incorporation of pharmacogenomic procedures both to drugs in development and drugs on the market would help to optimize therapeutics in SCZ and other central nervous system (CNS) disorders.