title: Distribution of human CYP2C8*2 allele in three different African populations.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The aim of this study was to investigate cytochrome P450 2C8*2 (CYP2C8*2) distribution and allele frequency in three populations from West and East Africa exposed to Plasmodium falciparum malaria. CYP2C8 enzyme is involved in the metabolism of the anti-malarials amodiaquine and chloroquine. The presence of the CYP2C8*2 defective allele has been recently associated to higher rate of chloroquine-resistant malaria parasites.
  
  
  METHODS
  A total of 503 young subjects were genotyped for the single nucleotide polymorphism rs11572103 (A/T). Eighty-eight were from southern Senegal, 262 from eastern Uganda and 153 from southern Madagascar. The PCR-RFLP technique was used to discriminate the wild-type (A) from the defective allele (T).
  
  
  RESULTS
  A CYP2C8*2 (T) allele frequency of 0.222 ± 0.044 was detected in Senegal, 0.105 ± 0.019 in Uganda and 0.150 ± 0.029 in Madagascar.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study demonstrated that CYP2C8*2 allele is widespread in Africa. This allele occurs at different frequency in West and East Africa, being higher in Senegal than in Uganda and Madagascar. These data indicate that an important fraction of the populations analysed has a decreased enzymatic activity, thus being at higher risk for drug accumulation with two possible consequences: i) an exacerbation of drug-associated adverse side effects; ii) an increase of drug-resistance selection pressure on P. falciparum parasites.
authors.affiliation: Department of Public Health and Infectious Diseases, Sapienza University, P. le Aldo Moro 5, 00185 Rome, Italy. giacomo.paganotti@uniroma1.it
authors.forename: Giacomo M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Paganotti
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Gramolelli
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Tabacchi
authors.forename: Gianluca
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Modiano
authors.forename: Mario
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Coluzzi
authors.forename: Rita
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Romano
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000655:Amodiaquine / Q000378:metabolism; D000962:Antimalarials / Q000378:metabolism; D001189:Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases / Q000235:genetics*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002738:Chloroquine / Q000378:metabolism; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D065727:Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C8; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008270:Madagascar; D008297:Male; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012675:Senegal; D014454:Uganda
chemical_list: D000962:Antimalarials; D000655:Amodiaquine; D002738:Chloroquine; D001189:Aryl Hydrocarbon Hydroxylases; C450259:CYP2C8 protein, human; D065727:Cytochrome P-450 CYP2C8