Thoroughly modern medicine

Personalized medicine is receiving increasing attention in the medical literature and lay press as one way to optimize therapy and reduce complications of treatment for almost any disorder. However, understanding the systemic complexities necessary to implement the ambitious goals of personalized medicine is unlikely to arise from the study of common disorders. Rather, dissecting out the individual components to therapeutic response is far more feasible with defined disorders of known cause. Inborn errors of metabolism offer an attractive opportunity to better define the hyperbole surrounding development and institution of personalized medicine.     

Pharmacogenetics: A strategy for personalized medicine for autoimmune diseases

For many years, a considerable number of patients with autoimmune diseases (ADs) have suffered from a lack of drug response and drug‐related toxicity. Despite the emergence of new therapeutic options such as biological agents, patients continue to struggle with these problems. Unfortunately, new challenges, including the paradoxical effects of biological drugs, have complicated the situation. In recent decades, efforts have been made to predict drug response as well as drug‐related side effects. Thanks to the many advances in genetics, evaluation of markers to predict drug response/toxicity before the initiation of treatment may be an avenue toward personalizing treatments. Implementing pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics in the clinic could improve clinical care; however, obstacles remain to effective personalized medicine for ADs. The present study attempted to clarify the concept of pharmacogenetics/pharmacogenomics for ADs. After an overview on the pathogenesis of the most common types of treatments, this paper focuses on pharmacogenetic studies related to the selected ADs. Bridging the gap between pharmacogenetics and personalized medicine is also discussed. Moreover, the advantages, disadvantages and recommendations related to making personalized medicine practical for ADs have been addressed.     

Phototherapy and its place in modern medicine

The notion of "phototherapy" is defined in the paper; the evolution stages of the above promising medicine trend are described; variants and methods of its application as well as action mechanisms of different optic-irradiation ranges on human body are elucidated. Medical fields, in which phototherapy can be used, are specified.     

Catalytic autoantibodies in clinical autoimmunity and modern medicine

Abzymes (catalytic autoantibodies) belong to an absolutely new group of physiologically active substances with dual characteristics: they represent a pool of canonical autoantibodies and possess catalytic activity. Among them, proteolytic and DNA-hydrolyzing autoantibodies are of special value. Abzymes are an important pathogenic factor in the progression of clinical autoimmunity syndrome. The presence of autoantibodies against various autoantigens is accompanied by their high catalytic potential. The increase in this activity correlates with serum levels of the autoantibodies, clinical manifestations of autoimmune disorders, disease severity and the rate of progressing disability. Abzymes are crucial for immune homeostasis regulation. They can be of practical value in the development of modern immunodiagnostic tools and schedules of immunotherapy.