Objectives: The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of CYP2B6 gene polymorphisms on efavirenz (EFV) plasma concentrations in Han Chinese patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection.
Methods: In total, 322 patients were recruited for study. EFV plasma concentrations at steady-state were determined using high-performance liquid chromatography. Genotyping for seven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including 171+967C>A, 171+3212C>T, 171+4335T>C, 516G>T, 785A>G, 1295-913G>A, and *1355A>G of CYP2B6, was performed using ligase detection reaction (LDR). SPSS 18.0 and Haploview 4.2 were applied for statistical analyses.
Results: The average EFV concentration of patients was 2.35±2.09 μg/mL. Overall, 22% patients displayed EFV concentrations out of the therapeutic range of 1-4 μg/mL (13.1% < 1 μg/mL, 9.3% > 4 μg/mL). We observed significant association of 171+967C>A, 171+4335T>C, 516G>T, 785A>G and *1355A>G with high plasma EFV levels (p<.01). The predictive accuracy values of 171+4335CC, 516TT and 785GG for EFV concentrations > 4 μg/mL were 56.7%, 56.7% and 60%, respectively. We observed strong linkage disequilibrium for 171+967C>A, 171+4335T>C, 516G>T and 785A>G, resulting in five haplotypes. The frequencies of the five haplotypes (high to low) were as follows: CCTG (0.328), ACTG (0.280), ACCT (0.189), ATTG (0.186) and ACCG (0.017). The frequency of CCTG (0.524) in patients with EFV plasma concentrations < 1 μg/mL was significantly higher than that in other patient groups, while that of ACCT (0.733) was significantly higher in patients with EFV concentrations > 4 μg/mL, relative to other patient groups. Average EFV concentrations of patients carrying ACTG (1.78 μg/mL), ACCT (7.50 μg/mL), and ATTG (1.92 μg/mL) haplotypes were markedly higher than those of patients carrying the CCTG haplotype. The predictive accuracy of ACCT for EFV > 4 μg/mL was 81%.
Conclusions: Chinese patients administered standard doses of EFV require therapeutic drug monitoring or personalized medication management. Based on the current findings, we propose that 171+4335T>C, 516G>T, 785A>G and haplotype ACCT may be effectively used as genomic markers for EFV, which should aid in improving the efficacy of EFV-containing treatments and reduce the incidence of adverse reactions.