Microarray or DNA chip technology is a revolutionary approach, which is reshaping the molecular biology and the way to make research and diagnosis. It is a recently developed technique, which allows analyzing thousand of genes, in a very short time. Microarray technology has a high number of fields of application, starting from rapid sequencing of DNA, to identify rare or more frequent gene variants (polymorphisms) related to a particular disease, until gene and protein expression analysis, to study the way, the time and the physiological/pathological conditions, in which a specific gene is translated or not into the final protein. Due to the powerful nature of this genetic approach, the number of researches using microarray technology boosted in the last years (less than ten papers from 1995 to 1997, up to approximately one thousand in the following 5 years -PubMed). Nevertheless, in spite of the promising fields of application, many drawbacks have been described, in the use of DNA microarrays and need to be carefully considered. For example, many errors of incorporation, during the manufacturing of the chips, loss of alternative variants of the studied genes (alternative splicing variants), variable reliability of differential expression data, low specificity of cDNA microarray probes, discrepancy in fold change calculation for a given gene and so on have been reported. In spite of all those troubles, there is no doubt that this new promising technology could give an overall idea of gene organization and expression and might contribute to understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in processes, as disease diagnosis or drug discovery (Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics). The aim of the present review is to suggest a targeted use of DNA chip technology, in the field of pharmacogenetics (with the example of antidepressants), suggesting the way to select, among thousands of genes, possibly involved in the pharmacological action of antidepressants, only those ones more probably candidate, trough a step by step analysis of intracellular pathways.
A targeted use of DNA microarrays in the pharmacogenetics of antidepressants: pros and cons / Lorenzi C.; Tubazio V.; Ploia C.; Serretti A.; De Ronchi D.;. - In: CLINICAL NEUROPSYCHIATRY. - ISSN 1724-4935. - STAMPA. - 1:(2004), pp. 125-134.
A targeted use of DNA microarrays in the pharmacogenetics of antidepressants: pros and cons
SERRETTI, ALESSANDRO;DE RONCHI, DIANA
2004
Abstract
Microarray or DNA chip technology is a revolutionary approach, which is reshaping the molecular biology and the way to make research and diagnosis. It is a recently developed technique, which allows analyzing thousand of genes, in a very short time. Microarray technology has a high number of fields of application, starting from rapid sequencing of DNA, to identify rare or more frequent gene variants (polymorphisms) related to a particular disease, until gene and protein expression analysis, to study the way, the time and the physiological/pathological conditions, in which a specific gene is translated or not into the final protein. Due to the powerful nature of this genetic approach, the number of researches using microarray technology boosted in the last years (less than ten papers from 1995 to 1997, up to approximately one thousand in the following 5 years -PubMed). Nevertheless, in spite of the promising fields of application, many drawbacks have been described, in the use of DNA microarrays and need to be carefully considered. For example, many errors of incorporation, during the manufacturing of the chips, loss of alternative variants of the studied genes (alternative splicing variants), variable reliability of differential expression data, low specificity of cDNA microarray probes, discrepancy in fold change calculation for a given gene and so on have been reported. In spite of all those troubles, there is no doubt that this new promising technology could give an overall idea of gene organization and expression and might contribute to understanding the molecular mechanisms involved in processes, as disease diagnosis or drug discovery (Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacogenomics). The aim of the present review is to suggest a targeted use of DNA chip technology, in the field of pharmacogenetics (with the example of antidepressants), suggesting the way to select, among thousands of genes, possibly involved in the pharmacological action of antidepressants, only those ones more probably candidate, trough a step by step analysis of intracellular pathways.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
