ABCB1 gene C3435T polymorphism and drug resistance in epilepsy: evidence based on 8,604 subjects.

Background: The present study aimed to assess the role of C3435T polymorphism in drug-resistance in epilepsy by a meta-analysis.

Material And Methods: Databases were obtained from the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed, Science Direct database, CNKI, and Wanfang up to October 2014. All the case-control association studies evaluating the role of ABCB1 C3435T in pharmacoresistance to anti-epileptic drug (AED) were identified. RevMan 5.0 software was utilized to perform quantitative analyses in an allele model (C vs. T) and a genotype model (CC vs. CT+TT).

Results: From the 189 potential studies, we included 28 articles for the meta-analysis, including 30 independent case-control studies involving 4124 drug-resistant epileptic patients and 4480 epileptic patients for whom drug treatment was effective. We excluded 164 studies because of duplication, lack of genotype data, and non-clinical research. We found that C3435T polymorphism was not significantly associated with drug resistance in epilepsy, either in allele model (C vs. T: OR=1.07; 95%CI: 0.95-1.19) or in genotype model (CC vs. CT+TT: OR=1.05; 95%CI: 0.89-1.24, P=0.55). Subgroup analyses suggested that in Caucasian populations there are significant differences between resistance group (NR) and control group (R) in both allele model (C vs. T: OR=1.09; 95%CI: 1.00-1.18, P=0.05) and genotype model (CC vs. CT+TT: OR=1.20; 95%CI: 1.04-1.40, P=0.01). However, we did not find this association in Asian populations.

Conclusions: We conclude that the ABCB1 C3435T polymorphism may be a genetic marker for drug resistance in epilepsy in Caucasian populations.