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The pharmacogenetics of the response to warfarin in Chinese
Author(s) -
Lam May P. S.,
Cheung Bernard M. Y.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
british journal of clinical pharmacology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.216
H-Index - 146
eISSN - 1365-2125
pISSN - 0306-5251
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2125.2011.04097.x
Subject(s) - vkorc1 , warfarin , pharmacogenetics , cyp2c9 , dosing , vitamin k epoxide reductase , medicine , pharmacology , anticoagulant , genotype , biology , genetics , atrial fibrillation , gene , cytochrome p450 , metabolism
Warfarin is a commonly used oral anticoagulant with a narrow therapeutic range and large interindividual variability in daily dose. Compared with Caucasians, Chinese are known to require lower doses of warfarin. Differences between Caucasians and Chinese in the allelic frequencies of two genes, CYP2C9 and VKORC1 , largely explain the difference in dose requirement. There are other genetic polymorphisms that may further explain the response to warfarin. The VKORC1 genotype is an important determinant of response to warfarin in Chinese, but some genetic variants found in other ethnic groups that have a large effect on warfarin response and dosing are not commonly found in Chinese. Therefore, it is important to recognize and beware of ethnic differences in the pharmacogenetics of the response to warfarin, especially in the design of algorithms to aid dosing in clinical practice.