To determine CYP2C19 and CYP2C8 allele frequencies, 28 coding and/or functional variants were genotyped in 1250 African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic and Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) individuals. The combined CYP2C19 variant allele frequencies ranged from ~0.30–0.41; however, the CYP2C8 frequencies were much lower (~0.04–0.13). After incorporating previously reported CYP2C9 genotyping results from these populations (36 total CYP2C variants), 16 multi-ethnic CYP2C haplotypes were inferred with frequencies >0.5%. Notably, the 2C19*17-2C9*1-2C8*2 haplotype was identified among African-Americans (8%) and Hispanics (2%), indicating that CYP2C19*17 does not always tag a CYP2C haplotype that encodes efficient CYP2C-substrate metabolism. The 2C19*1-2C9*2-2C8*3 haplotype was identified in all populations except African-Americans and additional novel haplotypes were identified in selected populations (e.g., 2C19*2-2C9*1-2C8*4, 2C19*4B-2C9*1-2C8*1), together indicating that both CYP2C19*17 and *2 can be linked with other CYP2C loss-of-function alleles. These results have important implications for pharmacogenomic association studies involving the CYP2C locus and are clinically relevant when administering CYP2C-substrate medications.

Cholesteryl Ester Storage Disease (CESD) and Wolman disease are autosomal recessive later-onset and severe infantile disorders, respectively, which result from the deficient activity of lysosomal acid lipase (LAL). LAL is encoded by LIPA (10q23.31) and the most common mutation associated with CESD is an exon 8 splice junction mutation (c.894G>A; E8SJM), which expresses only ~3–5% of normally spliced LAL. However, the frequency of c.894G>A is unknown in most populations. To estimate the prevalence of CESD in different populations, the frequencies of the c.894G>A mutation were determined in 10,000 LIPA alleles from healthy African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic and Ashkenazi Jewish individuals from the greater New York metropolitan area and 6,578 LIPA alleles from African-American, Caucasian, and Hispanic subjects enrolled in the Dallas Heart Study. The combined c.894G>A allele frequencies from the two cohorts ranged from 0.0005 (Asian) to 0.0017 (Caucasian and Hispanic), which translated to carrier frequencies of 1 in 1,000 to ~1 in 300, respectively. No African-American heterozygotes were detected. Additionally, by surveying the available literature, c.894G>A was estimated to account for 60% (95% CI: 51%–69%) of reported mutations among multi-ethnic CESD patients. Using this estimate, the predicted prevalence of CESD in the Caucasian and Hispanic populations is ~0.8 per 100,000 (~1 in 130,000; 95% CI: ~1 in 90,000 to 1 in 170,000). Conclusion These data indicate that CESD may be under-diagnosed in the general Caucasian and Hispanic populations, which is important since clinical trials of enzyme replacement therapy for LAL deficiency are currently being developed. Moreover, future studies on CESD prevalence in African and Asian populations may require full-gene LIPA sequencing to determine heterozygote frequencies since c.894G>A is not common in these racial groups.

CYP2C19 is a principal enzyme involved in the bioactivation of the antiplatelet prodrug clopidogrel and common CYP2C19 loss-of-function alleles are associated with adverse cardiovascular events. To assess the impact of the CYP2C19*17 increased activity allele in the Ashkenazi Jewish (AJ) and Sephardi Jewish (SJ) populations and to determine the frequencies of additional variant alleles, 250 AJ and 135 SJ individuals were genotyped for CYP2C19*2–*10, *12–*17, *22 and P-glycoprotein (ABCB1) c.3435C>T. Importantly, CYP2C19*4, a loss-of-function allele, was identified in linkage disequilibrium with *17. This novel haplotype, designated CYP2C19*4B, significantly alters the interpretation of CYP2C19 genotyping when testing *17. Moreover, genotyping CYP2C19*17 changed the frequency of extensive metabolizers from ~70 to ~40%, reclassifying ~30% as ultrarapid metabolizers. Combining CYP2C19 and ABCB1 identified ~1 in 3 AJ and ~1 in 2 SJ individuals at increased risk for adverse responses to clopidogrel. These data underscore the importance of including *4B and *17 when clinically genotyping CYP2C19.

To determine the role of CYP450 copy number variation (CNV) beyond CYP2D6, 11 CYP450 genes were interrogated by MLPA and qPCR in 542 African-American, Asian, Caucasian, Hispanic, and Ashkenazi Jewish individuals. The CYP2A6, CYP2B6 and CYP2E1 combined deletion/duplication allele frequencies ranged from 2% to 10% in these populations. High-resolution microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) localized CYP2A6, CYP2B6 and CYP2E1 breakpoints to directly-oriented low-copy repeats. Sequencing localized the CYP2B6 breakpoint to a 529 bp intron 4 region with high homology to CYP2B7P1, resulting in the CYP2B6*29 partial deletion allele and the reciprocal, and novel, CYP2B6/2B7P1 duplicated fusion allele (CYP2B6*30). Together, these data identified novel CYP450 CNV alleles (CYP2B6*30 and CYP2E1*1Cx2) and indicate that common CYP450 CNV formation is likely mediated by non-allelic homologous recombination resulting in both full gene and gene-fusion copy number imbalances. Detection of these CNVs should be considered when interrogating these genes for pharmacogenetic drug selection and dosing.

CYP2C19 is involved in the metabolism of clinically relevant drugs, including the antiplatelet prodrug clopidogrel, which has prompted interest in clinical CYP2C19 genotyping. The CYP2C19∗4B allele is defined by both gain-of-function [c.-806C>T (∗17)] and loss-of-function [c.1A>G (∗4)] variants on the same haplotype; however, current genotyping and sequencing assays are unable to determine the phase of these variants. Thus, the aim of this study was to develop an assay that could rapidly detect and discriminate the related ∗4A, ∗4B, and ∗17 alleles. An allele-specific PCR assay, composed of four unique primer mixes that specifically interrogate the defining ∗17 and ∗4 variants, was developed by using samples (n = 20) with known genotypes, including the ∗4A, ∗4B, and/or ∗17 alleles. The assay was validated by testing 135 blinded samples, and the results were correlated with CYP2C19 genotyping and allele-specific cloning/sequencing. Importantly, among the six ∗4 carriers in the validation cohort, after allele-specific PCR testing both samples with a ∗1/∗4 genotype were reclassified to ∗1/∗4A, all three samples with a ∗4/∗17 genotype were reclassified to ∗1/∗4B, and a sample with a ∗4/∗17/∗17 genotype was reclassified to ∗4B/∗17. In conclusion, this rapid and robust allele-specific PCR assay can refine CYP2C19 genotyping and metabolizer phenotype classification by determining the phase of the defining ∗17 and ∗4 variants, which may have utility when testing CYP2C19 for clopidogrel response.