Michael O Baclig
St Luke’s Medical Center, Philippines
Title: Variation in response to opioid analgesics: A study on single nucleotide polymorphisms in human COMT and cytochrome P450 D6 genes
Biography
Biography: Michael O Baclig
Abstract
Opioids are potent analgesics and remain to be the mainstay in the management of cancer- related pain. The variation in response to opioid analgesics is partly due to genetic variability. A hospital-based cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the association between catechol-0-methyltrasferase (COMT) and cytochrome P450 D6 (CYP2D6*10) genetic polymorphisms and opioid consumption among cancer patients. Polymorphisms in the COMT rs4680 and CYP2D6*10 rs106585 genes were identified through restriction fragment length polymorphism and nucleotide sequencing. Cancer patients with moderate pain (NRS 4-6) were prescribed with tramadol, while those having severe pain (NRS 7-9) were given morphine. None of the single nucleotide polymorphisms in the two candidate genes COMT and CYP2D6*10 showed significant associations with opioid consumption among cancer pain patients. It is likely that multiple genes rather than single gene may affect drug pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics and together with environmental factors may influence the clinical efficacy of opioid analgesics.