Genetics of Drug Response
The genetic differences that help establish drug response are inherited. You got your genes from your parents, and you pass them to your children. Therefore, if you have a gene change that makes you more likely to have a poor drug response, your close relatives – especially parents, brothers, sisters, and children – might also share that trait. However, except for identical twins, there is no way for them to know what combination of drug response genes they have without having testing themselves. Their variants could be the same as or different from yours.
The picture below shows an example of how drug response gene variants can be shared in a family. This is only one possible arrangement, but the general idea applies to other gene variant combinations.
