Genetic polymorphisms of pharmacogenomic VIP variants in the Lahu population from Yunnan Province

Background: Pharmacogenomics has been widely used to study the very important pharmacogenetic (VIP) variants among populations, but information on pharmacogenomics in the Lahu population is limited. The purpose of this study was to determine the differences in the distribution of VIP variants between the Lahu and the other 26 populations.

Methods: We genotyped 55 VIP variants of 27 genes in the Lahu population from the PharmGKB database. χ² test was used to compare the genotype and allele frequencies between the Lahu and the other 26 populations from the 1000 Genomes Project.

Results: The genotype and allele frequencies of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on rs20417 (PTGS2), rs776746 (CYP3A5), rs2115819 (ALOX5), and rs3093105 (CYP4F2) were considerably different in the Lahu population compared with those in the other 26 populations. Besides, based on the PharmGKB database, we identified several VIP variants that may alter the drug metabolism of aspirin (PTGS2), tacrolimus (CYP3A5), montelukast (ALOX5), and vitamin E (CYP4F2).

Conclusion: The results show that there are significant differences in the genotype frequency distribution between the Lahu and the other 26 populations. Our study supplements the pharmacogenomics information of the Lahu population and provides a theoretical basis for individualized medicine in Lahu.