High prevalence of CYP2C19*2 allele in Roma samples: study on Roma and Hungarian population samples with review of the literature

The purpose of our study was to characterise the CYP2C19*2 and CYP2C19*3 alleles in healthy Roma and Hungarian populations. DNA of 500 Roma and 370 Hungarian subjects were genotyped for CYP2C19*2 (G681A, rs4244285) and CYP2C19*3 (G636A, rs4986893) by PCR–RFLP assay and direct sequencing. Significant differences were found comparing the Roma and Hungarian populations in CYP2C19 681 GG (63.6 vs. 75.9 %), GA (31.8 vs. 23.0 %), AA (4.6 vs. 1.1 %), GA+AA (36.4 vs. 24.1 %) and A allele frequencies (0.205 vs. 0.125) ( p < 0.004). Striking differences were found between Roma and Hungarian samples in CYP2C19*1 (79.5 vs. 87.4 %) and CYP2C19*2 (20.5 vs. 12.6 %) alleles, respectively ( p < 0.001). None of the subjects was found to carry the CYP2C19*3 allele. Frequencies of the intermedier metabolizer phenotype defined by the *1/*2 genotype (0.318 vs. 0.230, p < 0.005) and poor metabolizer predicted by the *2/*2 genotype (0.046 vs. 0.011, p < 0.005) was significantly higher in Roma than in Hungarians, respectively. Genotype distribution of the Roma population was similar to those of the population of North India, however, a major difference was found in the frequency of the CYP2C19*2 allele, which is likely a result of admixture with European lineages. In conclusion, the frequencies of the CYP2C19 alleles, genotypes and corresponding extensive, intermediate and poor metabolizer phenotypes studied here in the Hungarian population are similar to those of other European Caucasian populations, but display clear differences when compared to the Roma population.