Hydroxylation index of omeprazole in relation to CYP2C19 polymorphism and sex in a healthy Iranian population

Polymorphism of CYP2C19 gene is one of the important factors in pharmacokinetics of CYP2C19 substrates. Omeprazole is a proton pump inhibitor which is mainly metabolized by cytochrome P450 2C19 (CYP2C19). The aim of present study was to assess omeprazole hydroxylation index as a measure of CYP2C19 activity considering new variant allele (CYP2C19*17) in Iranian population and also to see if this activity is sex dependent. One hundred and eighty healthy unrelated Iranian individuals attended in this study. Blood samples for genotyping and phenotyping were collected 3 hours after administration of 20 mg omeprazole orally. Genotyping of 2C19 variant alleles *2, *3 and *17 was performed by using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) and semi-nested PCR methods. The CYP2C19*17 was the most common variant allele in the studied population (21.6%). Genotype frequencies of CYP2C19*17*17, *1*17, and *2*17 were 5.5%, 28.8% and 3.3% respectively. The lowest and the highest median omeprazole HI was observed in *17*17 and *2*2 genotypes respectively (0.36 vs. 13.09).