Landscape of warfarin and clopidogrel pharmacogenetic variants in Qatari population from whole exome datasets

Abstract

Aim: Pharmacogenetic landscapes of commonly used antiplatelet drugs, warfarin and clopidogrel have been studied in-depth in many countries. However, there is a paucity of data to understand their patterns in the Arab populations. Materials & methods: We analyzed the whole exome sequencing datasets of 100 Qatar individuals available in public domain with this perspective. Results: We characterized the allelic distribution of variants routinely tested for warfarin and clopidogrel. We additionally evaluated the population stratification and its effect on allele frequency distribution. Our analysis points to ethnic differences in the frequency distribution even for the small population studied. Conclusion: This is one of the first and most comprehensive pharmacogenetic maps of variants associated with warfarin and clopidogrel for an Arab population, which can help tailor the drug dosage to the population.