Association between Cytochrome P450 2C19 Gene Polymorphisms and Hematological Malignancies in an Iranian Population

Cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19) is widely involved in the metabolism of some medications. On the other hand, recent studies have shown the contribution of the CYP2C19 polymorphisms to different malignancies. We aimed to investigate the association between CYP2C19 polymorphism and occurrence of hematological malignancies by comparing the phenotype distribution of this enzyme in patients and healthy subjects.

150 Iranian patients with hematological malignancies from different ethnicities were recruited. Mutant alleles of the CYP2C19*2 and *3 were examined using PCR-RFLP technique and CYP2C19*17 was genotyped using DNA sequencing analysis.

CYP2C19*17 was the most common allelic variation (24%, 95% CI: 19.17-28.83%) among patients with hematological malignancies, whereas the variant CYP2C19*3 was not detected among our patients. Furthermore, the CYP2C19*1*1 and CYP2C19*1*17 genotypes which respectively represented the “extensive metabolizer” (EM) and Ultra-rapid metabolizer (URM) phenotypes, had the highest incidence.

The results of this study suggested that there may be no association between CYP2C19 polymorphisms and occurrence of hematological malignancies. However, larger well-designed studies are necessary to confirm these results in Iranian populations.