Genomic and proteomic approaches for predicting toxicity and adverse drug reactions

Background: In the toxicology field, it remains a major challenge to predict and understand drug toxicity and adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in man. Objective: Recent progress in genomics and proteomics technologies and their application in predicting drug toxicity and ADRs. Methods: The key genomic and proteomic approaches are outlined, their applications in predicting toxicity and ADRs are described and their future developments in this field are discussed. Conclusion: These technologies, used to measure expression at the transcript and protein levels, each convey different information and have different technical capabilities that can complement each other. The fields of genomics and proteomics continue to develop rapidly and it is already evident that genomic and proteomic approaches have much to contribute to the early prediction of drug toxicity and ADRs.