Method to predict drug response

The researchers, from Imperial College London and the pharmaceutical firm Pfizer, hope their work will aid development of personalised medicines.

Their 'pharmaco-metabonomic' approach uses a combination of advanced chemical analysis and mathematical modelling to predict responses to drugs.

Details of the research are published in the journal Nature.

"This new technique is potentially of huge importance to the future of healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry"
Professor Jeremy Nicholson

The method is based on analysing the chemical products of the body's metabolism.

The researchers believe that examining these patterns can help diagnose diseases, predict an individual's future illnesses, and their response to treatment.

They tested their approach by administering paracetamol to rats and measuring how it affected their livers and how it was excreted.

Before giving the dose they measured the levels of the natural metabolites in the rats' urine.

After creating a 'pre-dose urinary profile' for each rat, the researchers used computer modelling to compare the urine before and after they were given the drug.

Bacteria role

Lead researcher Professor Jeremy Nicholson said the 'pharmaco-metabonomic' approach was able to take account of individual differences in the way drugs were absorbed and processed by the body.

This differed from person to person depending on factors such as the type and amount of bacteria found in the gut.

Professor Nicholson said: "This new technique is potentially of huge importance to the future of healthcare and the pharmaceutical industry.

"It could be the first step towards the development of more personalised healthcare for large numbers of patients."

The new technique is still in an early stage of development and will be studied in humans to evaluate its possible clinical application.

Paul Trennery, an expert in safety assessment at the pharmaceutical firm GlaxoSmithKline, said the company had been working on a similar approach for some time.

He said: "Actually understanding the very broad diversity of naturally occurring metabolic products that people excrete in their urine, or which circulates in their blood, as part of a normal lifestyle or when they are suffering from a disease, will be crucial to any practical use from the application.

"This is both in terms of understanding people's response to drugs, and being able to identify new and more sensitive biological markers of drug safety and efficacy in patients."

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