Aims: The goal of this study was to determine the frequencies of important allelic variants of CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2E1 and DPYD in the Egyptian population and compare them with the frequencies in other ethnic populations. Methods: Genotyping of CYP2C9 (*2 and *3), CYP2C19 (*2 and *3), c2 variant of CYP2E1 and DPYD alleles (*2 A-*6) was carried out in a total of 247 unrelated Egyptian subjects. An allele-specific fluorogenic 5′ nuclease chain reaction assay was applied for detection of CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 variants. Other variants of the CYP2E1 and DPYD genes were determined using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism and allele-specific PCR based assays. Results: CYP2C9 allele frequencies in 247 Egyptian subjects were 0.820 for CYP2C9*1, 0.120 for CYP2C9*2 and 0.060 for CYP2C9*3. For CYP2C19, the frequencies of the wild type (CYP2C19*1) and the nonfunctional (*2 and *3) alleles were 0.888, 0.110 and 0.002, respectively. CYP2C19*3, which is considered an Asian mutation, was detected in one subject (0.40%) who was heterozygous (*1/*3). Two subjects (0.80%) were homozygous for *2/*2, while no compound heterozygotes (*2/*3) or homozygotes for *3 were detected. For CYP2E1, only four subjects (1.70%) had the rare c2 variant, expressed heterozygously, giving an allele frequency of 0.009. Five variants of DPYD were analysed, with no splice sites (*2 A) or ΔC1897 (*3) found in this population. The frequencies of other variants were 0.028, 0.115 and 0.090 for *4, *5 and *6, respectively. Conclusions: Comparing our data with that obtained in several Caucasian, African-American and Asian populations, we found that Egyptians resemble Caucasians with regard to allelic frequencies of the tested variants of CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2E1 and DPYD. Our results may help in better understanding the molecular basis underlying ethnic differences in drug response, and contribute to improved individualization of drug therapy in the Egyptian population.
