Based on these needs, the future challenge for epidemiological research and public health include the incorporation of genomics into existing public health programmes [26]. Furthermore, whereas the concept and use of “genetic tests” may not reflect the complexity of most www.selleckchem.com/products/brefeldin-a.html diseases, much more plausible and practicable seems to be the concept and use of “genome-based information”, Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries since it is based on the understanding of genome-environmental interactions changing over time and space within individuals.

In the landscape of Public Health Genomics these two different approaches and ways of thinking can already be observed: whereas institutions such as the Public Health Genomics Foundation (PHGF) in the UK or the Institute of Public Health Genetics in Seattle, USA, focus on the role Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries of genetic tests for public health, other institutions such as the Institute for Public Health Genomics in Maastricht, The Netherlands, the European Centre for Public Health Genomics (ECPHG) or the Public Health Genomics European Network (PHGEN) focus on the role of genome-based health information including information from systems biology, epigenomics and the Personal Genome Project for public health. The potential for genomics to promote public health in case of smoking is a helpful example to illustrate the current usefulness, threats and limitations of these applications. Smoking-induced lung cancer continues to be a major public health concern. However, it is widely known that smoking cessation will lead to a decreased risk of lung cancer and other smoking-related diseases such as chronic obstructive lung disease, coronary artery disease, asthma and other smoking-related conditions [46].

For years, cessation programmes targeted the individual smoker with a limited but tangible success. From a public health perspective, societal-level approaches such as bans, taxes and antismoking campaigns showed a more substantial utility. These methods have a dual benefit: they Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries decrease the smoking prevalence, Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries and in the case of smoking bans, they prevent the exposure of vulnerable populations to secondary smoke. The emerging question today is how genomics could augment those public health effects [47]. First of all, genome research can identify genotypes that modulate smoking status, initiation, cessation, quantity and treatment Inhibitors,Modulators,Libraries response.

In addition, the discovery of polymorphisms linked to an altered risk Entinostat of lung cancer would be valuable. Secondly, genetic testing could lead to an increased rate of smoking cessation. The first mechanism Carlsten et al proposed for this is that if a smoker is aware of a higher risk of lung cancer, he or she will have a much greater motivation to stop [47]. Furthermore, genetic testing could identify individuals who should be subjected to more intensive cessation programs.