PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Yakun Chen AU - Shuqing Chen AU - Xin Li AU - Xiewei Wang AU - Su Zeng TI - Genetic Variants of Human UGT1A3: Functional Characterization and Frequency Distribution in a Chinese Han Population AID - 10.1124/dmd.106.009761 DP - 2006 Sep 01 TA - Drug Metabolism and Disposition PG - 1462--1467 VI - 34 IP - 9 4099 - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/34/9/1462.short 4100 - http://dmd.aspetjournals.org/content/34/9/1462.full SO - Drug Metab Dispos2006 Sep 01; 34 AB - UDP-glucuronosyltransferase 1A3 (UGT1A3) contributes to glucuronidation of many important endogenous compounds and xenobiotics, including some flavonoids. Recently, a total of six single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been identified in the human UGT1A3 gene. Among them, four SNPs (A17G, Q6R; T31C, W11R; C133T, R45W; and T140C, V47A) cause amino acid substitutions. Variants caused by these SNPs showed an activity change in estrone metabolism, whereas their activities toward other substrates were not examined. In the present study, three common flavonoids, quercetin, luteolin, and kaempferol, were used as substrates for glucuronidation by wild-type and variant UGT1A3s. Our results demonstrated that the activities of three variants, UGT1A3.2, UGT1A3.3, and UGT1A3.5, were remarkably lower than that of UGT1A3.1. In contrast, UGT1A3.4 exhibited an increase in glucuronidation efficiency of approximately 4 times and a clear preference to quercetin 7- and 3-hydroxyl groups. The frequency distributions of UGT1A3 alleles and SNPs in UGT1A3 in a Chinese Han population were statistically different from the reported value in German-Caucasians (p < 0.05). UGT1A3 variants have an altered glucuronidation activity toward quercetin, luteolin, and kaempferol and may alter human susceptibility to flavonoid exposure. The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics