“A key role for genetic tests in future medicine”
LEARN TO LOOK AHEAD
In the traditional approach, a patient is prescribed the treatment and cure after he/she is diagnosed with the disease, and/or when the disease occurs.
SNP genetic tests allow us to read and interpret a person’s genetic inheritance and to preventively identify any areas at risk in which a person is genetically predisposed to develop a disease, so as to determine targeted, personalized treatments.
Examples of areas at risk of disease include:
- Osteoporosis
- Diabetes
- Cardiovascular diseases (e.g. hypertension, myocardial infarction)
- Cell transformation (e.g. various types of carcinomas)
- Dyslipidemia (e.g. high blood cholesterol, high blood triglycerides)
PERSONALIZED CONSULTING PROCESSES
Based on genetic test results, our medical team* will determine what treatments should be followed or actions should be taken:
- targeted tests
- specific treatments
- or simply the right diet
- and appropriate dietary supplements.
“An innovative approach that allows you to take better care of yourself and improve your quality of life by taking preventive action against age-related diseases.”
SNP TEST
A. DNA TESTS ABLE TO IDENTIFY IN ADVANCE THE DISEASES TO WHICH A PERSON IS PREDISPOSED ARE INCREASINGLY AVAILABLE IN ITALY AND WORLDWIDE.
The use of susceptibility tests is on the rise in Italy and worldwide. There is increasing supply thanks to the advances of post-genomics, and there is increasing demand.
In 2002, the number of chromosome investigations performed was 230,000, up 31.5% from 2000. To this figure we should add 164,000 predictive tests; the demand for these tests has increasedby 30% every year (source: Censimento Istituto Mendel and SIGU). The sites that perform gene investigations are proliferating; in Italy their number is remarkably high (particularly in the North of the country), unlike in other European countries.
As a result, new issues are arising in connection with the psychological, social, ethical, legislative and technical impact of this new and evolving scenario of next-generation medicine. There is a need for more stringent laws to protect patients’ privacy, and more importantly to ensure that all personnel involved meets high professional and ethical requirements, especially in the standards of service offered.
B. SOCIAL, ETHICAL AND LEGAL IMPACT OF GENETIC SUSCEPTIBILITY TESTS, AND THE ACTIVE ROLE OF GENALTA.
The advantage of a predictive test, if it identifies a predisposition to a particular disease, is the possibility to act in time to prevent the disease from occurring. Within certain limits, the genetic test anticipates the symptoms and allows physicians to“change the natural history of the disease” thanks to targeted, personalized treatments.
This is an opportunity for patients to take action to preserve their health, and has a positive psychological impact not only on patients themselves, but also on their family and social life.
GENALTA recognizes their importance, and has developedConsulting Processes in conjunction with experts and specialized personnel to provide information and guidance.
Gene analysis is a rapidly growing business, but it is our duty to prevent the misuse of tests and an anarchic mushrooming of laboratories; we must, instead, promote knowledge, information and patient consulting, for the preventive methods available to be effective, targeted, and ethically acceptable.
C. TO KNOW OR NOT TO KNOW?
Would we rather stay ignorant, just because awareness may be a problem? Is it better not to know, because our genetic situation may cause depression, fear and uncertainty? The reactions vary from person to person.
However, we believe that thanks to the advances of medicine, we now have an opportunity that allows us to preserve, or even to improve our health conditions: the opportunity to act while it’s not too late.
Moreover, is it a responsible approach to choose to stay ignorant? If a person is at risk of developing Huntington disease, his/her child has a 50% chance of developing the same disease. The same applies to the risk of breast cancer.
Within the basic“patient safety” context, it is crucial toensure the privacy and confidentiality of genetic data, and protect the subject from any form of discrimination. Another important consideration is the need for high quality standards throughout each process, from the performance of tests to communications with customers and medical support to avoid the possibility of misinforming or disorienting patients.
D. A NEW PHYSICIAN-PATIENT RELATIONSHIP
Technological innovations applied to medicine, and especially genetic tests, have brought changes to medical practice. Today, physicians are called to face problems and decisions that are entirely new; along with their role, the patient’s role has also changed and acquired a new set of rights. Medicine is no longer viewed simply as a response to a disease (reactive medicine), but as a practice that rationally foresees and manages the "health capital". The new concept of medicine deals with genetic information that does not concern the subject’s immediate future; rather, it can be useful to prevent diseases that are likely/possible in the long term (predictive medicine).
According to this revolutionary definition of medicine, patients are expected to take in and use information about their genetic predispositions, and make decisions accordingly although they have no perception of a direct link between the potential disease and the treatment.
In this new definition of medicine, the physician’s role changes from therapist to health consultant, while the patient is no longer a person suffering from a disease but someone who tries to make the best possible use of his/her health forecast.
GENOMICS
A. GENOMICS AS A WAY TO WELLNESS
In the next few years, gene research will offer more and more new opportunities to cure or prevent diseases. Genalta positions itself as a market leader in the new sector of“preventive medicine”, whose purpose is to prevent diseases before they occur. The“SNP PANEL” genetic tests developed by Genalta are special lab tests designed to analyze a person’s DNA simply by running a swab on the inside of the cheek. The results cannot establish if or when the person will develop a disease, but they help toidentify, based on their DNA, the people who are more atrisk than the general population, allowing them to prevent the possible disease and improve their health.
“We lead you to your wellness...”
B. GENETIC VARIABILITY
Thehuman genome contains variable areas, calledsingle nucleotide polymorphisms orSNPs, which are responsible for the differences between individuals.
There are approximately ten million of these variations within the entire human DNA (an average of one SNP for every 300 nucleotide bases), and approximately 250,000-500,000 of them affect theindividual phenotype. A smaller SNP subset affects the likelihood of developing complex diseases, and is ultimately responsible for the genetic risk of these diseases in combination with environmental conditions and lifestyle.
Today, thanks in part to the introduction of new reliable, highly sensitive low-cost gene analysis technologies, sufficient experimental evidence has been acquired to establish the role of SNPs in inducing susceptibility to certain disease or disease-prone conditions, also in terms of increased risk estimates compared to the general population.
