Abstract

Pharmacogenetics is the study of inherited variations in drug response Pharmacogenetics uses the techniques of pharmacology, population genetics, biochemical genetics and, most recently, molecular biology, to study the biological basis for individual variation in therapeutic response and in the occurrence of adverse reactions to medications. Most pharmacogenetic experiments deal with inherited differences in drug metabolism. The discussion here will review inherited variation in the activity of thiopurine methyltransferase, an enzyme that catalyzes the methyl conjugation of an important group of drugs, the thiopurines.