Examining the DNA Obtained from Saliva Samples in Relation to the Pharmacogenetics of Kidney Transplantation

The recent application of pharmacogenetics to the kidney transplantation process has provided a new method for creating drug dosage regimes that are specific to each patient. These regimes are based on a patient’s genotype, which is usually obtained from a blood sample. The purpose of this study was to determine whether saliva samples could be used as a less invasive alternative to blood samples for examining genes of interest in transplant patients. To test this hypothesis, the amount and purity of DNA was measured from four saliva samples. Following this, the purified DNA was run with the human primer for the SNP RS7767396 to determine if it had potential for use in further testing. The results from this work suggest that saliva samples produce an amount of DNA useful for further pharmacogenetic testing, though the resulting product contains more impurities than the DNA obtained from blood. These results imply that saliva samples could possibly be used as an alternative to blood samples in the future, making it more likely that patients would agree to participate in trials.Bachelor of Scienc