Pharmacogenetics in the Brazilian population

Abstract

"Pharmacogenetics deals with pharmacological responses and their mod-ification by hereditary influences." 1 This definition, offered by Werner Kalow in the first book dedicated to pharmacogenetics (Kalow, 1962), highlights the three pillars of this discipline: pharmacology, genetics, and human diversity. Pharmacogenetics has evolved greatly over the 50 years elapsed since Kalow’s book was published and was rechristened as phar- macogenomics in the fashion of the "omics" revolution, but its conceptual development and praxis remain contingent upon a better understanding of human genomic diversity and its impact on drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. In this chapter, I present an overview of phar- macogenetic/pharmacogenomic (PGx) studies in Brazilians, starting with a brief review of the heterogeneity and structure of the Brazilian population, which have important implications for the conceptual development and clinical implementation of PGx in this country.