Genetic polymorphisms of VIP variants in the Tajik ethnic group of northwest China

BACKGROUND: Individual response to medications varies significantly among different populations, and great progress in understanding the molecular basis of drug action has been made in the past 50 years. The field of pharmacogenomics seeks to elucidate inherited differences in drug disposition and effects. While we know that different populations and ethnic groups are genetically heterogeneous, we have not found any pharmacogenomics information regarding minority groups, such as the Tajik ethnic group in northwest China. RESULTS: We genotyped 85 Very Important Pharmacogene (VIP) variants selected from PharmGKB in 100 unrelated, healthy Tajiks from the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and compared our data with HapMap data from four major populations around the world: Han Chinese (CHB), Japanese in Tokyo (JPT), Utah Residents with Northern and Western European Ancestry (CEU), and Yorubia in Ibadan, Nigeria (YRI). We found that Tajiks differed from CHB, JPT and YRI in 30, 32, and 32 of the selected VIP genotypes respectively (p < 0.005), while differences between Tajiks and CEU were found in only 6 of the genotypes (p < 0.005). Haplotype analysis also demonstrated differences between the Tajiks and the other four populations. CONCLUSION: Our results contribute to the pharmacogenomics database of the Tajik ethnic group and provide a theoretical basis for safer drug administration that may be useful for diagnosing and treating disease in this population. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12863-014-0102-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.