UDP-glucuronosyltransferase genetic variation in North African populations: a comparison with African and European data

Abstract

Background: Genetic variation in glucuronosyltransferases (UGT) is crucial in drug metabolism and risk of some diseases.

Aim: To examine genetic variation in UGT in North African populations.

Subjects and methods: Allele frequencies of SNPs UGT1A4^24Thr, UGT1A4^48Val, UGT2B15^85Tyr, UGT2B15^523Thr and UGT2B17 CNV deletion from Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya were compared to European and Sub-Saharan populations.

Results: North Africans are the group with the highest genetic heterogeneity given by internal differences in the occurrence of UGT2B17 deletion, UGT1A4^48Val and UGT1A4 haplotypes. UGT2B15 SNPs differentiate Sub-Saharans from the rest of the populations.

Conclusion: North African populations show a high frequency of carriers of UGT2B15^523Thr, a variant linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer. High Atlas Moroccans and Algerians show low frequency of UGT2B17^del, a variant associated with high concentrations of testosterone and oestradiol.

Keywords:

• Glucuronidase
• UGTs
• pharmacogenetics
• genetic diversity
• risk-associated alleles

Acknowledgements

We want to thank J. M. Dougoujon (France) for providing samples from Morocco and N. Harich and M. Kandil (Morocco) for their helpful comments about the manuscript. Finally, thanks to the academic editor and the two anonymous reviewers, who substantially improved this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was financed by the grant ‘Ajut per potenciar sinèrgies en recerca’ awarded by the Faculty of Biology, University of Barcelona (2016 and 2017), the project 2016/UEM 39 of the Universidad Europea de Madrid, and by the 2017 SGR 1630 Grup de Recerca en Antropologia Biològica (GREAB).