When they weren鈥檛 competing to map the human genome, it often seemed like and were vying for the title of world鈥檚 most candid scientist. Now their genomes are doing battle, and the loser seems to be the biological concept of race.
A new comparison of the scientists鈥� publicly available genome sequences indicates that, although Watson and Venter are both white men, they will react to some drugs quite differently.
Watson鈥檚 genome hosts a mutation in a drug-metabolising gene rarely found in Caucasians. 鈥淚t shows that James Watson has some Korean blood in him, or some Asian blood anyway,鈥� says , a pharmacologist at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. 鈥淗e wouldn鈥檛 get good pain relief from codeine.鈥�
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Nor much effect from antipsychotic drugs, some antidepressants and a drug commonly used to treat breast cancer, say Venter and , of the J. Craig Venter Institute in Rockville, Maryland, who compared the scientists鈥� genomes. Venter used the analysis to make a simple point:
鈥淩ace-based medicine doesn鈥檛 have any real basis in science,鈥� he told 快猫短视频. 鈥淵ou can look at somebody鈥檚 skin colour, but it doesn鈥檛 necessarily tell you much about the rest of their genome or how they鈥檒l respond to drugs or which drugs they鈥檒l respond to.鈥�
Consensus view
Last year, Watson quit his job as head of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in New York after a British newspaper quoted him making disparaging remarks about the intelligence of people from Africa. He later apologised and noted: 鈥淭here is no scientific basis for such a belief.鈥�
The latest analysis supports the conclusion that skin colour doesn鈥檛 convey as much medically useful information as knowledge of individual genomes.
鈥淭hat became a consensus view back in the pre-Cambrian, or perhaps a tad earlier,鈥� says , a geneticist at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
Yet the availability of cheap genetic testing 鈥� and soon complete individual genome sequencing 鈥� means that such personalised information will become increasingly important in developing, testing and prescribing medicines.
Although the concept of a drug for every genome is more fiction than fact, our genes will help customise drug treatments by grouping people into categories for specific diseases, Venter says. One set of genes may dictate a particular treatment for hypertension, whereas another set will influence which drugs are prescribed for cancer.
Saving lives
Many of those connections remain weak and medically useless for now. By contrast, scientists have made big strides in understanding how the body breaks down drugs, a key criterion that determines dosing.
For instance, a blood-thinning drug called warfarin breaks down slowly in patients with a certain gene mutation, putting them at risk of haemorrhaging. Knowing the sequence of a gene called CYP2C9 before prescribing warfarin can cut down on haemorrhaging and save lives.
Watson and Venter have different mutations in CYP2C9, but this difference doesn茂驴陆t seem to affect how they break down warfarin. But other drug-metabolism genes vary between the two genetic pioneers.
Most notably, Watson has two copies of a mutation in the gene CYP2D6 that affects the break down of some heart drugs, as well as antipsychotics and antidepressants. Ng and Venter note that 3% of Caucasians have this mutation, which is far more common among East Asians.
And although Venter seems to have the same drug metabolism as the average white male, genes that influence other traits will tell another story, McLeod, says.
Journal reference: (DOI: 10.1038/clpt.2008.114)
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