Pharmacogenetics of drug metabolizing enzymes in the United Kingdom population: review of current knowledge and comparison with selected European populations.

Data on frequency of pharmacogenetic polymorphisms in the UK population are limited. However, availability of whole genome sequencing data on 94 UK controls of European ethnicity from the 1000 genomes project together with similar data on other populations provides a valuable new source of data in this area and allows direct comparison of allele frequencies with those for other European populations. The ethnic diversity of the UK population also needs to be considered, and 1000 genomes includes data on South Asians, the most common ethnic group in the UK after White Europeans. Allele frequencies for polymorphisms in genes relevant to phase I and phase II drug metabolism for UK, Finnish, Spanish and South Asian populations were obtained from the literature and 1000 genomes. Generally there was good agreement between the literature and 1000 genomes reports. CYP2D6*4, the most common CYP2D6 poor metabolizer allele among Europeans, appears more common in the UK than in Spain and Finland, whereas, as suggested previously, CYP2C19*2 and CYP2C9*2 appear more common in Finland and Spain, respectively, than in the UK. South Asians show low frequencies of CYP2C9*2 and CYP2C19*17 but higher frequencies of CYP2C19*2 compared with UK residents of European ethnicity. Though personalizing drug treatment on the basis of individual genotype rather than ethnicity may be more appropriate, differences in allele frequencies across continents should be considered when designing clinical trials of new drugs.