Pharmacogenomics Study of Clopidogrel by RFLP based Genotyping of CYP2C19 in Cardiovascular Disease Patients in North-East Population of India

Abstract

Introduction and Objective: Pharmacogenetics is a genetically determined variability in drug responses. The genes and their allelic variants which affect our response to drugs are the main routes in development of pharmacogenetics. Clopidogrel is an antiplatelet drug, used against athero-thrombotic events in cardiovascular patients. The objective of our study was to identify the CYP2C19 Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms, responsible for altering the metabolism of clopidogrel, at gene level. And to document the prevalence of CYP2C19 gene mutations in clopidogrel treated cardiovascular disease patients in Assam population, Guwahati Medical College & Hospital, in North- East India. Patients and Methods: We have studied 60 patients who received clopidogrel from Gauhati medical college and hospital Assam. Genomic DNA was extracted by using Hipura blood genomic DNA extracting mini preparation kit by following the manufacturer’s instructions.RFLP analysis was done by DNA amplification which was carried out by using set of primers and resulting ampicons of CYP2C19*2;CYP2C19*3 and CYP2C19*17 were subjected for Restriction digestion with SmaI, BamHI and Lwe0I respectively. Results: We found that CYP2C19*2 had allelic frequency of ~40% in Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, Assam, North East India. None of the samples were mutated with CYP2C19*3 andCYP2C19*17 allele. Other CYP2C19 variant alleles with reduced or absent enzymatic activity have been identified. Conclusion: We found that loss of functional allele CYP2C19*2 had higher carriage frequency; whereas, CYP2C19*3 and *17 alleles were not found in cardiovascular patients who were taking clopidogrel. Personalized therapy targeting patients who carry these genetic variants might help to improve the clinical outcome.