Transcriptomic profiling of personal cell lines as drug response biomarker discovery tool

9^th International Conference on Genomics & Pharmacogenomics

June 15-16, 2017 London, UK

David Gurwitz

Tel-Aviv University, Israel

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Mol Genet Med

Abstract :

Genome-wide pharmacogenomic studies for targeted therapies offer the advantage of hypothesis-free search for tentative drug response biomarkers (efficacy and safety). However, they require very large patient cohorts. My talk will present an alternative research approach as prelude to clinical studies in larger cohorts: Genome-wide transcriptomic profiling of a panel of human lymphoblastoid cell lines (LCLs) representing unrelated healthy donors. These cells are personal cell lines that can be obtained from many bio-banks, including our National Laboratory for the Genetics of Israeli Populations (NLGIP) at Tel Aviv. Our approach offers simple and inexpensive discovery of tentative drug response biomarkers and new potential drug targets. I will present our studies on SSRI response biomarkers for precision medicine of major depressive disorder (MDD). We found that lower expression of CHL1 (close homologue of L1), coding for a neuronal cell-adhesion protein implicated in thalamocortical circuitry, is predictive for higher sensitivity to SSRI drugs. This, as well as preliminary findings from clinical studies (to be presented), support the role of CHL1 expression as biomarker for SSRI sensitivity in MDD. These studies also implicate ITGB3 (integrin beta-3), coding for another cell adhesion protein, in the mode of action of SSRI drugs. Further discussed examples will include transcriptomic profiling of LCLs for discovering lithium response biomarkers for precision medicine in bipolar disorder, and for early detection biomarkers for Alzheimer�s disease.

Biography :

Email: gurwitz@post.tau.ac.il