Using new bioinformatics tools to analyze thousands of human tissue samples, researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center created a new database of daily rhythms in human gene activity—including many genes that regulate how drugs work.
Using new bioinformatics tools to analyze thousands of human tissue samples, researchers at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center created a new database of daily rhythms in human gene activity—including many genes that regulate how drugs work.
Reporting in Science Translational Medicine, researchers say their results could have significant implications for a growing field of study called circadian medicine—timing the administration of drugs or other therapies to coincide with the body’s internal clock.
"We identified rhythms in gene expression across the body in a large and diverse group of people,” says John Hogenesch, PhD, senior investigator and a circadian biologist in the divisions of Human Genetics and Immunobiology. “It doesn’t matter if you’re male, female, young or old, or what your ethnicity is, your body’s internal clock regulates half your genome. This includes drug metabolizing enzymes, transporters, and targets. Now we are learning which drugs hit clock-regulated products and may benefit from optimizing administration time in people.”
The authors stress additional studies are needed before these findings are translated into clinical practice. This includes studies in pre-clinical models, which could support future time-of-day drug administration studies in people.
Read more at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center
Image: John Hogenesch, Ph.D., is a circadian biologist in the divisions of Human Genetics and Immunobiology at Cincinnati Children's. (Credit: Cincinnati Children's)
