Precision Medicine in Type 2 Diabetes

Abstract

Precision medicine is an innovative approach to tailoring disease prevention and treatment that takes into account differences in people’s genes, environments, and lifestyle patterns. The aim of such an approach is to lead a shift in the clinical treatment paradigm from a trial-and-error or perceptive approach to the right drug, for the right patient, at the right time. The characterization of human biology and behaviors is now possible at scale owing to advances in biomarkers, bioimaging, and wearable technologies. In addition, big data from electronic medical records, health insurance databases, and other platforms have become available. These have enabled the generation of new insights into the phenotype known as diabetes. Precision medicine in diabetes (PMD) refers to an approach to optimize the diagnosis, prediction, and prevention or treatment of diabetes by integrating multi-dimensional data accounting for individual differences. The potential for precision treatment in diabetes is vast and should be considered cost-effective. Compared to precision medicine of monogenic diabetes, precision medicine of type 2 diabetes is difficult due to the polygenic condition in which environment as well as thousands of etiological genetic variants play an important role. Although there are the great concerns about PMD, which is complex and difficult to do, is required much time, we look forward to clinical utility in the treatment of patients based on their effects on different classes of markers, including race, metabolic status, other phenotypic markers, and omics data for each class of antihyperglycemic medication in the near future.