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Intra-ethnic differences in genetic variants of the UGT-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 gene in Chinese populations

The Pharmacogenomics Journal volume 7, pages 333–338 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Variants within the human UGT1A1 gene are associated with irinotecan induced severely adverse reactions and hyperbilirubinemia. Intra-ethnic differences in the genetic variation and haplotypes of UGT1A1 gene have been analyzed in the present study. Relationship between the concentrations of total serum bilirubin (T-bil) and haplotype structure of UGT1A1 in healthy people were also evaluated. We genotyped five functional polymorphisms including −3279T>G and −3156G>A in the enhancer region, (TA)6>7 in the TATA box, and 211G>A (G71R), 686C>A (P229Q) in the exon1 region of UGT1A1 in three groups of healthy Chinese ethnic populations, consisting of 264 subjects of She origin, 539 of Han origin and 273 of Dong origin. The distribution of −3279T>G, (TA)6>7, 211G>A of UGT1A1 differed greatly as between the three ethnic groups. All of six haplotypes differed considerably between at least two of the three groups, which highlighted the need to analyze clinically irinotecan toxicity relevant SNPs and haplotypes in a variety of different racial groups within the Chinese population. Total bilirubin concentration in homozygous carriers of the −3279G and (TA)7 allele were significantly higher than those in heterozygous carriers or homozygous carriers of wild-type alleles. Carriers of the variant haplotypes (−3279G; −3156A; (TA)7; 211G; 686C) had higher serum T-Bil concentrations compared with the other groups. Our results indicate that heterogeneity among different ethnic populations is possibly the result of microevolution and is relevant to studies into the effect of tailored drug treatment.

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Acknowledgements

We would sincerely thank all the subjects for their participation in this study and all the medical staff involved in specimen collecting. This work was supported by grants from the national 973 and 863 programs of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Science and Technology, and the Chinese Ministry of Education.

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  1. A Zhang and Q Xing: These authors have contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China

    A Zhang, Q Xing, S Qin, J Du, L Wang, L Yu & X Li

  2. Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    A Zhang, Q Xing, S Qin, J Du, L Wang, L Yu, X Li & L He

  3. The Second Affiliated Hospital of Wannan Medical College, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China

    L Xu

  4. Institute of Parasitic Diseases of Anhui Province, Wuhu, Anhui Province, China

    M Xu

  5. Shanghai Institute of Mental Health, Shanghai, China

    G Feng

  6. NHGG, Bio-X Center, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Shanghai, China

    L He

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  1. A Zhang
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Correspondence to L He.

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Zhang, A., Xing, Q., Qin, S. et al. Intra-ethnic differences in genetic variants of the UGT-glucuronosyltransferase 1A1 gene in Chinese populations. Pharmacogenomics J 7, 333–338 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.tpj.6500424

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.tpj.6500424

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