Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Why do some people response to the same type of drug or chemical different than others? Is there any genetic factor involved? What kind of drug that would safe for an experiment but still show subtle changes in people?

Hi,

There can be different reasons why drugs work differently in people - this depends on the drug and how that particular drug works (mechanism of action).

Yes, some drugs are known to work differently in different people, based on a known genetic difference. A good example is the drug Herceptin (you can google this for alot of info on it's mechanism of action and the genetic component). For Herceptin, differences in growth factor receptors on the cell surface (whose expression depends on the genetic expression in the cell) dictate binding efficiency of Herceptin.

Some people metabolize drugs differently. There is a genetic component to how well the drug metabolism takes place, but this may not be dependent on the specific drug or its mechanism of action.

I hope this is helpful. Let me know if more questions come up, or if this was not clear.

Tonya

A major contributing factor to why drugs produce different effect/side effect in people is because often they are different enantiomers.(Sterioisomers) A good example is listed below,


http://www.sparknotes.com/chemistry/org ... ion2.rhtml
Often chemical have the same functional groups and the same chemical formula but are arranged differently in space thus contributing to different effects in people.

Perhaps you could demonstrate how different isomers taste to different people by a taste test. Check with your teacher before proceeding and if anything is not clear please let me know.