RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Single nucleotide polymorphism induces divergent dynamic patterns in CYP3A5: a microsecond scale biomolecular simulation of variants identified in Sub-Saharan African populations JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 2021.05.16.444330 DO 10.1101/2021.05.16.444330 A1 Houcemeddine Othman A1 Jorge da Rocha A1 Scott Hazelhurst YR 2021 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2021/05/17/2021.05.16.444330.abstract AB Pharmacogenomics aims to reveal variants associated with drug response phenotypes. Genes whose roles involve the absorption, distribution, metabolism, and excretion of drugs, are highly polymorphic between populations. High coverage whole genome sequencing showed that a large proportion of the variants for these genes are rare in African populations. This study investigates the impact of such variants on protein structure to assess their functional importance. We use genetic data of CYP3A5 from 458 individuals from sub-Saharan Africa to conduct a structural bioinformatics analysis. Five missense variants were modeled and microsecond scale molecular dynamics simulations were conducted for each, as well as for the CYP3A5 wildtype, and the Y53C variant, which has a known deleterious impact on enzyme activity. The binding of ritonavir and artemether to CYP3A5 variant structures was also evaluated. Our results showed different conformational characteristics between all the variants. No significant structural changes were noticed. However, the genetic variability acts on the plasticity of the protein. The impact on drug binding may be drug dependant. We conclude that rare variants hold relevance in determining the pharmacogenomics properties of populations. This could have a significant impact on precision medicine applications in sub-Saharan Africa.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.