Young Indians embracing gene testing for healthy ageing

As scientists, the world over, are busy trying to find the elusive elixir of life that can defy ageing and make you disease-free in golden years, gene-testing — a technology that scans DNA instructions you inherited from your parents to spot genetic disorders, is now gaining ground among Indians, especially the young.

According to diagnostics firms and health providers, gene-testing methods can not only find out what diseases you are prone to but also provide customised solutions to nip them in the bud and herald a new health era for you.

“Knowledge of the genetic make-up (favourable vs unfavourable) may give the opportunity to take a pro-active step to avoid unfavourable factors and prompt the person to visit the doctor at initial symptoms,” says Dr Amit Verma, consultant (molecular oncology and cancer genetics) at Max Hospitals in New Delhi.

He is witnessing a surge in healthy young individuals coming to his clinic for gene-testing. The reason to go for such testing is simple: It can identify increased risks of health problems, allowing you to choose personalised treatments or assess responses to treatments. “The concept of gene testing is quite new to the entire medical field. However, scientifically, it is an established concept. The broader strategy would be to create awareness among the doctors first, followed by awareness amongst the people,” adds Dr Amol Raut, CEO of the Pune-based gene diagnostics firm GeneSupport. 

Unfortunately, genetically associated factors cannot be reversed but the action will certainly minimise the possibility of acquiring bad health.

“The genes related to all conditions such as cancer, metabolic diseases, congenital diseases, lifestyle or other diseases are scanned, which helps in identifying missing pieces of information or even inappropriate information in genes,” explains Dr Raut, also the chief consultant (R&D) of GeneOmbio Technologies that provides various gene diagnostic services.

According to Dr Kshitiz Murdia, an IVF expert at the Indira Infertility Clinic in New Delhi, “genetic testing will be the future as we would be able to eliminate certain inherited or genetic disorders from families who have those.”

“In the last four-five years, genetics has progressed a long way through. With the new generation sequencing possible in the human genome, the whole genome can be sequenced and can even <g data-gr-id="32">identity</g> single gene disorders and some 600-700 other disorders,” he said. He too is seeing an increase in the number of people who want to go in for genetic testing. Pricing is also a key factor for such advanced test methods. The cost of gene tests depends upon the number of biomarkers being analysed.

“This increases the price bandwidth for tests which may range from an average of Rs 1,000 to Rs 10,000. The price range from lowest to highest may cover one to three conditions to several conditions, respectively,” Dr Raut said.