High prevalence of CYP2D6*41 (G2988A) allele in Saudi Arabians.

The main objective of this study was to evaluate CYP2D6 genetic polymorphism in a Saudi Arabian population by determining the frequencies of CYP2D6*41, CYP2D6*29, CYP2D6*3, CYP2D6*6 and CYP2D6*14 alleles. Genomic DNA was isolated from 192 healthy Saudis representing different geographical regions, and genotyping of the selected CYP2D6 variants was carried out by direct sequencing. The allelic frequency of CYP2D6*41 was found to be 18.4%, and that of CYP2D6*29 to be 2.9%. The other investigated alleles were either not detected or rarely present in the study population. In addition, two commonly shared single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two very rare SNPs among CYP2D6 alleles were detected. Further studies are therefore, required to evaluate the metabolic and clinical relevance of CYP2D6*41 in Saudi Arabians.