జర్నల్ ఆఫ్ ఫార్మకోజెనోమిక్స్ & ఫార్మాకోప్రొటోమిక్స్

నైరూప్య

Pharmacogenetics of Second Generation Antihistamines: A Systematic Review

Asees Singh*

H₁ inverse agonists, more commonly known as anti-histamines, find great everyday use in our lives. They function by blocking the H₁ receptor and not allowing histamine to express its physiological function. They are mostly used for the treatment of allergies, rhinitis etc. The second generation of this class of drugs is different from the first because they exist in a zwitterionic form at the physiological pH, thus not crossing the Blood Brain Barrier (BBB) and not showing CNS symptoms, like drowsiness. This article reviews how the reported genetic variations in the population alter the pharmacology of these drugs. With rising cases of minor allergies, especially reported in polluted cities like Delhi, a pharmacogenetic approach to prescribing anti-histamines can lead to better and more targeted treatment of the symptoms. The paper covers both the pharmacokinetic parameters and the pharmacodynamic parameters and then goes on to discuss how genetic variations have been reported in the genes encoding for the proteins affecting said parameters.