Can the A to Z of Your Genome provide a BLUEPRINT For Your FUTURE??
The other day, a thought came to my mind…Isn’t CANCER similar to your eye-shadow
palette?? Different hues providing you with diverse looks… a uniqueness associated with each of these colors! Just that the former gives you pain and can be fatal whereas the latter adds glamour and beauty to your life!
Imagine, if there was a way to uncover, what arrangement of genes, could be potentially indicative of cancer??
Remember, how as a kid we were made to memorize “A-Z” Not too different, but the human body too is made up of genes that individually encode for specific traits and features. With the ongoing progress in science, it is now feasible to even read through this “A to Z” of the human body. This gives us the ability to skim through the genetic arrangement (the good and the bad) together. Alterations or significant mistakes in the genomic arrangement when identified can help us delineate the potential risks associated with the altered genome.
Some of the most commonly observed reasons that can alter the genome are:
Base substitution, wherein a particular base (your A,T,G,C) is substituted with one
another)
Insertion and deletions, wherein a couple of extra bases encoding for a different protein
all together maybe inserted or deleted
Copy number alterations
Rearrangements, as the name suggests, a simple basic jumbling of the genetic codons
coding for specific genes/ proteins
How Can Genome Profiling Help Us or Medical Practitioners?
Uncovering the genomic arrangements provides the medical practitioners a chance to design tailor made and patient specific diagnostic and treatment options.
As I mentioned in my previous blog, every cancer is as unique as you are… therefore needs a specific treatment regime. This paves way for personalized medicine for each one of the patients.
Comprehensive genomic profiling utilizes Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) which is a far more competent than the conventional DNA sequencing techniques. It rapidly sequences the while genome and also specifically looks for specific target regions. The technique is effective enough to sieve our RNA variants/ or variations that could be indicative of abnormalities in the whole genome and therefore indicative of cancer.
Alone revolutionary innovations such as Genomic Profiling can competently allow the doctors to recommend and outline a more specific and precise treatment regime for their patients. This clearly showcases how Genomic Profiling can pave way for Precision Medicine and therefore we can expect a morning wherein one read a headline, “EACH OF THE SEVERAL CANCERS CAN BE CURED”!
