Pharmacogenetic profiling in the treatment of heart disease

Pharmacogenetics is the study of gene-drug interactions. In the post-Human Genome era, and with the realization that personal genotypes differ by millions of bases (gene polymorphisms), the application of genetics to explain interindividual differences in clinical drug response seems to offer great promise. Here, recent basic and translational developments in pharmacogenetic profiling of beta-blocker response in heart failure are reviewed in the context of the possible consequences of such advances on drug development and clinical therapeutics. (Translational Research 2009; 154:295-302)