Personalized Medicine in Pulmonary Infection

After sequencing the human genome, it became possible to find minor differences between individuals which without affecting the phenotype, could have important consequences in certain conditions. These are called Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP). SNPs are the cornerstone for the concept of Personalized Medicine which is now gradually replacing the old Programmatic Medicine (a fixed recipe for every patient). The simplest example is the slow and fast acetylators and hepatotoxicity of anti-tuberculosis drugs.Pulmonary infections are one of oldest diseases in medical literature and the chronic lung infections are one of the most challenging areas in medicine for prevention, diagnosis and treatment.Finding new bio markers for example can help us to predict which patient with latent tuberculous infection will progress to active disease and should receive prophylactic therapy.I will try to discuss the latest research and biomarkers especially in chronic pulmonary infections.

Keywords:

Biomarkers , Personalized Medicine , Chronic , Pulmonary Infection , Tuberculosis , Aspergillosis