Genetic polymorphisms of pharmacogenomic VIP variants in the Uygur population from northwestern China

BACKGROUND: Drug response variability observed amongst patients is caused by the interaction of both genetic and non-genetic factors, and frequencies of functional genetic variants are known to vary amongst populations. Pharmacogenomic research has the potential to help with individualized treatments. We have not found any pharmacogenomics information regarding Uygur ethnic group in northwest China. In the present study, we genotyped 85 very important pharmacogenetic (VIP) variants (selected from the PharmGKB database) in the Uygur population and compared our data with other eleven populations from the HapMap data set. RESULTS: Through statistical analysis, we found that CYP3A5 rs776746, VKORC1 rs9934438, and VKORC1 rs7294 were most different in Uygur compared with most of the eleven populations from the HapMap data set. Compared with East Asia populations, allele A of rs776746 is less frequent and allele A of rs7294 is more frequent in the Uygur population. The analysis of F-statistics (Fst) and population structure shows that the genetic background of Uygur is relatively close to that of MEX. CONCLUSIONS: Our results show significant differences amongst Chinese populations that will help clinicians triage patients for better individualized treatments.