Allele and genotype frequencies of CYP2B6 in a Turkish population.

Increasing interest in cytochrome P450 2B6 (CYP2B6) genetic polymorphism was stimulated by revelations of a specific CYP2B6 genotype significantly affecting the metabolism of various drugs in common clinical use in terms of increasing drug efficacy and avoiding adverse drug reactions. The present study aimed to determine the frequencies of CYP2B6*4 CYP2B6*5, CYP2B6*6, CYP2B6*7 and CYP2B6*9 alleles in healthy Turkish individuals (n = 172). Frequencies of three single nucleotide polymorphisms were 516G>T (28%), 785A>G (33%), and 1459C>T (12%). The frequencies of CYP2B6*1, *4, *5, *6, *7, and *9 alleles were 54.3 (95% CI 49.04-59.56), 6.4% (95% CI 3.81-8.99), 11% (95% CI 7.69-14.31), 25.3% (95% CI 20.71-29.89), 0.87% (95% CI -0.11-1.85) and 2.0% (95% CI 0.52-3.48), respectively. Allele *6 was more frequent (25.3%) than the other variant alleles in Turkish subjects. The frequencies of CYP2B6*4, *5, *6, *7, and *9 alleles were similar to European populations but significantly different from that reported for Asian populations. This is the first study to document the frequencies of the CYP2B6*4, *5, *6, *7, *9 alleles in the healthy Turkish individuals and our results could provide clinically useful information on drug metabolism by CYP2B6 in Turkish population.