Cytochrome P450 Drug Metabolizing Enzymes in Roma Population Samples: Systematic Review of the Literature

The cytochrome P450 drug metabolizing enzymes are highly polymorphic and show inter-individual differences in variability in drug response, which varies widely also with ethnicity. This study aims to summarize the available data on genetic polymorphisms associated with cytochrome enzymes conducted on Roma populations. Our goal was to compare the frequency of the variant alleles, genotypes and predicted phenotypes with corresponding rates from other populations. We carried out a systematic review including the papers published on the pharmacogenetically relevant variants of cytochrome P450 genes related to Roma population. The study was performed using several articles, websites and databases, including PubMed, Ensembl, dbSNP, HapMap and 1000 Genomes Project. This review attempts to summarize and discuss our current knowledge about the frequency distribution of the ever investigated 20 allelic variants of 9 cytochrome genes (CYP1A2, CYP1B1, CYP2B6, CYP2C9, CYP2C19, CYP2C8, CYP2D6, CYP3A5, CYP4F2) in Roma DNA samples and compare them with other populations. Differences between Roma and Hungarian samples are reported for 7 variant genotypes. CYP2C9 *2/*3 and CYP2C19 *2/*2 genotypes showed more than 3-fold differences. Additional differences are displayed for allele frequency of 7 variants (rs762551, rs3745274, rs1058930, rs1065852, rs3892097, rs1057910 and rs4244285) in Roma population samples. The interethnic variability in clinically relevant genetic polymorphisms of drug metabolizing enzymes, which may explain distinct drug response, highlights the need to allow for the ancestry of participants in pharmacogenetic studies.