Customized vitamins a fix for genetic flaws?

San Francisco Chronicle
Sabin Russell, Chronicle Medical Writer
Friday, June 6, 2008

(06-05) 20:01 PDT -- UC Berkeley scientists are exploring whether high-speed gene-reading machines - like those used to decode the human genome - will be able to find subtle genetic flaws that can harm health and can be cured by treatments as simple as vitamins.

Eventually, they hope, these scans will help nutritionists customize a course of vitamins to match the strengths and weaknesses of every individual. "Think of it as a metabolic tuneup," said Berkeley researcher Nicholas Marini.

Marini and a team of researchers reported this week that they had found, in DNA samples from over 500 people, four types of genetic mutations that were treatable with folate, a well-known member of the vitamin B family. One of the four had already been identified as a relatively common genetic defect that responded to the vitamin. The three others were new.

Although the research is years away from practical tests on humans, the study published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is a first step showing that such tuneups might be possible.

Marini cautioned that there is much about the interaction of genes and nutrition that is still unknown. "The reality is, we don't know how to interpret a lot of this information," he said.

Raising ethical questions

The study was partially funded by the Department of Defense, which saw the potential to improve human performance on the battlefield. Medical ethicists are now pondering what it will mean for those seeking to enhance performance in sports, in schools or on the job.

"There is no doubt that athletes will try to take advantage of DNA markers," said Steven Ungerleider, a research psychologist in Eugene, Ore., and author of "Faust's Gold," the story of the East German Olympic doping scandal. "The flip side of this wonderful medical technology is that it will be abused."

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