Should you donate your DNA to help cure diseases Greg Foot
So here’s the thing: developing a new
drug and getting it to you
can take a long time.
When we have to work
out the cause of a condition—
for example, with multiple sclerosis
or heart disease—
developing a new drug takes significant
trial and error and lots of money.
Which is why we only have drugs
for a small proportion of diseases.
But you could change all this.
You could help discover new, cheaper drugs
for currently untreatable diseases.
It’s all about medical crowdsourcing.
However, researchers aren’t asking
you to donate your money,
they’re asking you to donate
something more personal…
First, though, some drug development
history.
Many of the first medicines
were discovered by chance.
Natural philosophers
then took these
and identified the active chemicals
inside.
And pharmaceutical companies
then turned those into drugs.
The thing is, for a long time, we didn’t
know why those drugs worked.
Until scientists figured out that disease
happens when the molecular machines
that keep your body going— your proteins—
start misbehaving.
Drugs treat disease by targeting
those disruptive proteins.
Researchers realized
that if they can identify
which malfunctioning proteins cause
a specific disease,
they can then try to find
or develop a drug
that stops those proteins acting up,
and that will prevent the disease.
It’s a great plan,
but it’s a slow process.
So far, they’ve only identified
these therapeutic targets
for a small proportion of diseases.
However,
this is where you can help.
Researchers are now turning
their attention to DNA,
to the genetic instruction manual that
tells our bodies how to make our proteins.
They want to know which small changes
in someone’s genome
can lead to the production of those
dodgy proteins that cause a disease.
The thing is, that’s a big job.
DNA is huge, and each disease is likely
to have hundreds, possibly thousands,
of proteins involved.
But if they have lots of people’s genomes,
they can compare them and spot patterns.
They can look at multiple people
suffering from
the same currently untreatable disease,
find any small genetic changes they share,
identify the faulty proteins
they code for,
and there you go:
those are brand new therapeutic targets
for a currently untreatable disease.
Now the researchers have three options:
- Has one of those new target proteins
been previously linked
to a different disease that is treatable?
If so, the drug for that disease
may target this protein
and work for this disease, too.
To find out, start a clinical trial.
- If not, has one of those new target
proteins being previously linked
to a different disease that had
a promising drug
that didn’t ultimately work?
If so, its promise may have come
from successfully targeting this protein
and it may work for this disease.
Start a clinical trial to find out.
- If this is a brand new protein target
never identified before for any disease
could they design
a new drug to affect it?
This involves AI machine learning
and some very cool chemistry.
And a lot of time, effort, and cost too.
Researchers are excited about all this
because they think
1 in 5 of the proteins in your body
either have, or are likely to have,
a drug that will bind to them.
And, as any common disease is likely
to have hundreds, possibly thousands,
of proteins involved,
they’re hopeful they’ll be able
to identify a few of those proteins
they’ve already got a drug for.
But this all relies on finding
those new therapeutic targets,
and that’s why they need you.
Well, your data— both your genetic data
and your health history data,
so they can compare the genomes
of people with similar conditions.
So would you give your data for research?
There are two questions you may have:
who will have access to my data,
and what could they do with it?
One group is health care providers
who are starting to consider
using genetic analysis to give patients
more personal care.
Another group is private consumer
genetic testing companies.
Some have already sold genetic data
on to pharmaceutical companies for profit,
but that was with their customers consent.
However, it raises another question:
if your data goes towards
making new drugs,
should pharmaceutical companies
recognize that contribution
and offer drugs more cheaply?
Your best bet is to research the
organizations who are asking for your data
to find out what they will do with it
and how they will protect it.
We’ll each have our own take on this,
but what is clear is genomics
could be a powerful tool
to cut the current time and cost
it takes to develop new drugs
for currently untreatable diseases.
So, what do you think?