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Article: Snipping away at human disease.(tailoring drugs for individuals using single nucleotide polymorphisms or snips)
- Article from:
- U.S. News & World Report
- Article date:
- October 23, 2000
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2000 All rights reserved. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Warren Wegele would probably be dead by now if he had received the standard treatment for his failing heart. Wegele is one of the many patients who expose the shortfalls of medicine in all areas--from cancer to depression--by not responding to medicine or by having toxic, even fatal, reactions. "Each time I write a prescription for a new patient," says diabetes expert David Altshuler, "I know it might not help at all and could do harm." In fact, properly prescribed medications make 2 million Americans seriously sick and kill 100,000 each year.
But the era of "one size fits all" medication is ending, as physicians learn to read a patient's unique genetic code and ...