Effectiveness of a high-throughput genetic analysis in the identification of responders/non-responders to CYP2D6-metabolized drugs.

BACKGROUND

Recent studies investigating the single cytochrome P450 (CYP) 2D6 allele *2A reported an association with the response to drug treatments. More genetic data can be obtained, however, by high-throughput based-technologies. Aim of this study is the high-throughput analysis of the CYP2D6 polymorphisms to evaluate its effectiveness in the identification of patient responders/non-responders to CYP2D6-metabolized drugs.

METHODS

An attempt to compare our results with those previously obtained with the standard analysis of CYP2D6 allele 2A was also made. Sixty blood samples from patients treated with CYP2D6-metabolized drugs previously genotyped for the allele CYP2D62A, were analyzed for the CYP2D6 polymorphisms with the AutoGenomics INFINITI CYP4502D6-I assay on the AutoGenomics INFINITI analyzer.

RESULTS

A higher frequency of mutated alleles in responder than in non-responder patients (75.38 % vs 43.48 %; p = 0.015) was observed. Thus, the presence of a mutated allele of CYP2D6 was associated with a response to CYP2D6-metabolized drugs (OR = 4.044 (1.348 - 12.154). No difference was observed in the distribution of allele *2A (p = 0.320).

CONCLUSIONS

The high-throughput genetic analysis of the CYP2D6 polymorphisms better discriminate responders/non-responders with respect to the standard analysis of the CYP2D6 allele *2A. A high-throughput genetic assay of the CYP2D6 may be useful to identify patients with different clinical responses to CYP2D6-metabolized drugs.