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 UGT1A424Thr, UGT1A448Val, UGT2B1585Tyr, UGT2B15523Thr 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, UGT1A448Val 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 UGT2B15523Thr, a variant linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer. High Atlas Moroccans and Algerians show low frequency of UGT2B17del, a variant associated with high concentrations of testosterone and oestradiol.
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).