Background: Busulfan pharmacokinetics exhibit large inter-subject variability. Our objective was to evaluate the influence of glutathione S-transferase A1 (GSTA1) gene variants on busulfan oral clearance (CLo) in a population of patients undergoing hematopoietic stem cell transplantation.
Methods: This is a quasi-experimental retrospective study in adult patients (n = 87 included in the final analyses) receiving oral busulfan. Pharmacokinetics data (area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) determined from 10 blood samples) were retrieved from patients' files and GSTA1 *A and *B allele polymorphisms determined from banked DNA samples. Three different limited sampling methods (LSM) using four blood samples were also compared.
Results: Carriers of GSTA1*B exhibited lower busulfan CLo than patients with an *A/*A genotype (p < 0.002): Busulfan CLo was 166 ± 31, 187 ± 37 vs. 207 ± 47 mL/min for GSTA1*B/*B, *A/*B and *A/*A genotypes, respectively. Similar results were obtained with the tested LSMs. Using the standard AUC method, distribution of patients above the therapeutic range after the first dose was 29% for GSTA1*A/*A, 50% for *A/*B, and 65% for *B/*B. The LSMs correctly identified ≥91% of patients with an AUC above the therapeutic range. The misclassified patients had a mean difference less than 5% in their AUCs.
Conclusion: Patients carrying GSTA1 loss of function *B allele were at increased risk of overdosing on their initial busulfan oral dose. Genetic polymorphisms associated with GSTA1 explain a significant part of busulfan CLo variability which could be captured by LSM strategies.
Keywords: busulfan; genetic polymorphism; glutathione S-transferase; limited sampling strategy; pharmacokinetics.