Other than for the Roche Amplichip, has any use of microarrays been authorized?
The promising clinical potential of microarrays is still evolving. Arrays allow simultaneous determination of the presence or absence of many nucleic acid targets and, in many cases, the relative amount of those targets when this level of complexity is clinically appropriate. DNA or RNA from the patient sample can be evaluated; the term “expression profiling” is frequently applied to RNA assessment. The Roche Amplichip detects the presence or absence of 29 2D6 and two 2C19 alleles that have differing effects on drug metabolism. There are standardized arrays that target thousands of single nucleotide polymorphisms, or SNPs, throughout the genome. Useful associations of polymorphisms with disease states could lead to broader use of SNP arrays if multiple polymorphisms within or among genes are needed. DNA deletions and duplication/amplification can be detected by comparative genomic hybridization, or CGH, arrays where the hybridization ratios of a patient versus a normal sample are asses
