Individualized medicine enabled by genomics in Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The biomedical research sector in Saudi Arabia has recently received special attention from the government, which is currently supporting research aimed at improving the understanding and treatment of common diseases afflicting Saudi Arabian society. To build capacity for research and training, a number of centres of excellence were established in different areas of the country. Among these, is the Centre of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research (CEGMR) at King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, with its internationally ranked and highly productive team performing translational research in the area of individualized medicine. Here, we present a panorama of the recent trends in different areas of biomedical research in Saudi Arabia drawing from our vision of where genomics will have maximal impact in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. We describe advances in a number of research areas including; congenital malformations, infertility, consanguinity and pre-implantation genetic diagnosis, cancer and genomic classifications in Saudi Arabia, epigenetic explanations of idiopathic disease, and pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine. We conclude that CEGMR will continue to play a pivotal role in advances in the field of genomics and research in this area is facing a number of challenges including generating high quality control data from Saudi population and policies for using these data need to comply with the international set up.

Figure 1

Challenges, objectives and expected outcomes of biomedical research in Saudi Arabia.

Figure 2

Centre of Excellence in Genomic Medicine Research (CEGMR) Multi-disciplinary platforms in biomedical research.

Figure 3

Regional prevalence of cardiac heart defects (CDH) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Figure 4

Average annual age standardized incidence rates (ASR) of all cancers in males and females from the GCC states in the period 1998-2007 [68]. For comparison, ASR for cancer in the US in the period 2005-2009 ranged between nearly 290 in Asian American and Pacific Islander women and approximately 620 in African American men [91].

Figure 5

Most common cancer types in the period 1998-2007 for children between 0-14 years from the GCC states [68]. Leukaemia, brain cancer, Hodgkin’s diseases, and NHL were the most common malignancies in both genders.

Figure 6

(A) Pie-chart represents the CYP2C9*2 and (B) CYP2C9*3 polymorphisms observed in some of the Middle Eastern countries. (C) The percentage of CYP2C9*2 and CYP2C9*3 polymorphisms identified in Oman, Egypt, Lebanon, as well as in Al-Ahsa, Riyadh and Jeddah regions of the KSA. The incidence of CYP2C9 polymorphisms in Saudi population was similar to Caucasians; but, it was more than Asians and Africans [169] and adverse bleeding episodes are not uncommon in Saudi patients with CYP2C9*2 and CYP2C*3 alleles and may require 40% less Warfarin dose to induce effective anti-coagulation [169].