A case study of the utility of the HapMap database for pharmacogenomic haplotype analysis in the Taiwanese population.
BACKGROUND
Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can be used in clinical association studies to determine the contribution of genes to drug efficacy. The goal of this work was to evaluate the feasibility of using SNP information of the Han Chinese in Beijing (CHB) population from the HapMap database for clinical association studies in the Taiwanese (TWN) population.


METHODS
We compared the HapMap populations with our TWN study population with regard to allele frequencies for common SNPs in two candidate genes for antidepressant treatment response to determine the applicability of the HapMap CHB data for SNP selection in the TWN population.


CONCLUSIONS
Our preliminary results suggest that there was no significant difference, in terms of allele and haplotype frequencies, between the CHB population of the HapMap database and the TWN population collected by Vita Genomics Inc. Therefore, it is possible to use the CHB population of the HapMap database for SNP selection in association studies for the TWN population. Using haplotype analysis, we generated a panel of SNPs that may be strongly relevant to antidepressant response in this population.
Lin
Eugene
E
Vita Genomics Inc., Taipei, Taiwan. eugene.lin@vitagenomics.com
Hwang
Yuchi
Y
Tzeng
Chi-Meng
CM
D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics*; D019295:Computational Biology; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D003863:Depression / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D005828:Genetics, Population; D005838:Genotype; D006239:Haplotypes / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008658:Inactivation, Metabolic / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D013624:Taiwan