Preprint
Article

This version is not peer-reviewed.

First Pharmacoepigenomics in Personalized Medicine: CpG-PGx SNPs as New Candidates for a Systematic Insight into Genomic-Epigenomic-Phenomic-Pharmacogenomics (G-E-Ph-PGx) Axis

A peer-reviewed article of this preprint also exists.

Submitted:

16 July 2025

Posted:

17 July 2025

You are already at the latest version

Abstract
Background: There are important gaps in describing the associations between variants found by GWAS and various phenotypes. Prior reports suggested that SNPs in regulatory regions should be more investigated to uncover these associations. Thus, this study initiated a novel method along with Pharmacoepigenomics suggesting a new coined term “CpG-PGx SNP”. Methods: The rationale behind our analysis strategy was based on the impact of SNPs playing dual roles both in the CpG site disruption/formation and having PGx associations. Thus, we employed GeneCards (relevance score), PharmGKB (significant p-value), and GWAS catalog data for each gene (p<E-8). Following obtaining the 25 best-scored genes of four major epigenetic processes (methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation), we generated two lists of candidate genes including potential CpG-PGx SNPs 2 of 22 and possible CpG-PGx SNPs. Results: Among 2,900 significant PGx annotations, we found 99 potential CpG-PGx SNPs related to 16 genes. CYP2B6, CYP2C19, CYP2D6, and COMT genes were the top genes. Additionally, we found 1,230 significant GWAS-based SNPs, among them 329 CpG-SNPs related to 48 genes with at least one CpG site disruption/formation. The top gene with the highest CpG-SNPs was TET2, followed by JMJD1C, and HDAC9. Importantly, we detected some synonymous variants in Epigenetically Modifiable Accessible Region (EMAR) which can open new insights into undiscovered roles of these SNPs. We identified 173 CpG-Disruptive SNPs, 155 CpG-Forming SNPs, and just 1 CpG SNP with both impacts. Conclusion: In conclusion, here we introduced CpG-PGx SNP for the first time, suggested 3 major genes playing crucial roles in Pharmacoepigenomics (PEpGx), CYP2D6 as the heart of PEpGx, and TET2 with the highest possibility of having CPG-PGx SNPs. We believe that his novel technological advance potentially will help the scientific community to utilize “CpG-PGx SNP” to unravel complex disease driven genetic and epigenetic interactions yielding therapeutic opportunities.
Keywords: 
;  ;  ;  ;  

1. Introduction

Numerous traits have been effectively linked to specific areas of the genome by genome-wide association studies (GWAS) [1]. The process by which variations impact the phenotype they are linked to, however, is still unclear for many of these observations [2]. The majority of trait-associated variations found by GWAS are thought to function by changing gene expression rather than the protein coding and are found in regulatory areas of the genome [3]. This hypothesis is supported by the discovery of overlaps between GWAS risk variants and genomic loci influencing markers of genome regulation (like histone modifications) and enrichment of expression quantitative trait loci (eQTLs) at identified GWAS risk loci [4,5,6,7]. Therefore, combining GWAS with gene expression data is one way to improve knowledge of the processes behind GWAS findings.
DNA methylation is a key process in gene regulation. As such, it is an essential intermediary molecular trait that connects genes to other macro-level phenotypes and may contribute to missing heritability [8]. Despite their physiological importance, the genetic drivers of DNA methylation patterns remain poorly understood. There is evidence that genetic variation at certain loci correlates with the quantitative characteristic of DNA methylation [9,10,11,12]. Additionally, previous studies discovered that genetic variants at CpG sites (meSNPs) can possibly disrupt the substrate of methylation reactions and thus, severely alter the methylation status at a single CpG site [13,14].
While methylation-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms (meSNPs) have been identified in various studies, it remains unclear whether they constitute a major class of methylation quantitative trait loci (meQTLs), or if they significantly influence the methylation status of nearby CpG sites [9,10,11,12]. Most meQTL studies to date have been limited by relatively small sample sizes and the use of low-resolution methylation microarrays, in which meSNPs are sparsely represented. Furthermore, many current meQTL analyses deliberately exclude probes overlapping with sequence variants to avoid confounding due to disrupted probe hybridization [9,10].
Pharmacoepigenetics explores the complex relationship between epigenetic modifications and pharmacological responses, emphasizing how drugs can both alter and be affected by epigenetic mechanisms [15,16]. Gaining insight into these epigenetic changes is essential in pharmacology, as it helps optimize drug efficacy, reduce adverse reactions, and drive forward the progress of personalized medicine. As a multidisciplinary and continuously evolving field, pharmacoepigenetics merges pharmacology, epigenetics, and other life sciences to shape innovative therapeutic strategies and uncover new drug targets [17]. Alongside pharmacogenomics—a pharmacological sub-discipline focused on genetic variability in drug response—pharmacoepigenomics has emerged as a key area of interest. It concentrates on epigenetic therapy, the impact of epigenetic regulation on pharmacokinetics, and its implications in adverse drug reactions [18].
Finally, both pharmacoepigenetics and pharmacogenomics play a vital role in advancing personalized medicine by shedding light on the intricate relationships between genes, epigenetic mechanisms, and drug responses [18]. Here we introduce an innovative idea to test the Genomic-Epigenomic-Phenomic-Pharmacogenomics (G-E-Ph-PGx) axis by potential CpG-PGx SNPs (which their PGx roles are known) and possible CpG-PGx SNPs.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. General Design

In the first step of this analysis, we analyzed the four major processes in epigenetics including methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation. Then, we searched for the best-scored genes in each epigenetic process according to the relevance score of GeneCards (https://www.genecards.org/) [19]. Accordingly, we calculated the 1st -25th best-scored genes for each of the 4 epigenetic processes. In the next step, we checked every 100 genes in PharmGKB (https://www.pharmgkb.org/) [20] to see if they have at least one significant PGx annotation or not. Then, each PGx variant was subsequently checked if it is a CpG-PGx SNP or not. To find a new CpG-PGx SNP we investigated genes which had no significant PGx annotation in GWAS catalog (https://www.ebi.ac.uk/gwas/home) [21]. In the final step, we checked the potential SNPs (based on the best p-values) for being a possible CpG SNP or not. These CpG SNPs are suggested as new CpG-PGx SNPs in the results section. The whole process followed a hierarchal flow which in terms of either uncovering the potential roles of PGx annotations in epigenetic processes or finding new SNP candidates for being a pharmacoepigenetic factor (Figure 1).

2.2. Data and Datasets

Applying GeneCards, we included 100 best-scored genes based on 4 epigenetic processes including methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation (25 top genes of each one). It should be noted that all of the included genes were protein-coding due to the major interactions of Protein-Drugs in real-world findings and considering the highest confidence in introducing a new CpG-PGx SNP for future confirmations. As a well-known dataset, we stablished our strategy on PharmGKB information regarding its basis which consists of CPIC and DPWG as its main pillars. Finally, to check the suggesting new CpG-PGx SNPs, we utilized GWAS catalog for a gene of interest and refined the potential SNPs based on its classified data.

2.3. Statistical Analysis

According to our strategy of analysis, we prioritized and filtered genes, PGx annotations, and CpG-SNPs on various statistical scores which should be described for future investigations and add more clearance to the current study. In the first step, we utilized GeneCards data for finding the top genes in 4 epigenetic processes (methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation) based on Elasticsearch 7.11 and also, Relevance score. Theory Behind Relevance Scoring is that Lucene (and thus Elasticsearch) utilizes the Boolean model to find matching documents, and a formula termed “the practical scoring function” to compute relevance. This formula, itself, borrows concepts from term frequency/inverse document frequency and the vector space model, however, adds more-modern characteristics such as a field length normalization, coordination factor, and term/query clause boosting. Supplementary boosting is provided for the annotations including the Symbol, Aliases and Descriptions, Accessions for the major bioinformatics databases (NCBI, Ensembl, SwissProt), Molecular function(s), Gene Summaries, Variants with Clinical Significance, and Elite disorders. The other database we used was PharmGKB which it turns, is a pharmacogenomics knowledge resource which incorporates clinical data including clinical guidelines and medication labels, associations of potentially clinically actionable gene-drug, and genotype-phenotype linkages. PharmGKB gathers, curates and publicizes knowledge regarding the effect of human genetic variation on drug responses via the several activities such as annotating the genetic variants and gene-drug-disease relationships via literature review, summarizing the vital pharmacogenomic genes, associations between genetic variants and drugs, and drug pathways, and curating FDA drug labels covering pharmacogenomic data. The main filtering step in PharmGKB was considering the significant p-value of lower than 0.05 for all obtained PGx annotations. Finally, we mined some genes of the primary list (remained/extracted from the step 1) in GWAS catalog and for adjusting False Discovery Rate (FDR), we considered the critical threshold of p-value <5E-08. This means we exactly included the most significant GWAS-based SNPs in the current study for increasing the validation of our predictions and narrowing the possibilities to be close to future real-world findings.

3. Results

As we described earlier in the Method section, the aim of this study is to open new windows into personalized medicine treatment by advancing PGx approaches. We believe that SNPs as the smallest genetic building blocks can have major impacts by playing multiple roles and have the potential to make bigger changes by additive functions (SNP-SNP interactions). Pharmacoepigenomics can be traced down by CpG-SNPs which have PG roles at the same time and as such we divided the data into more detail of the primary genes (100 genes having 4 major epigenetic impacts).
Initially, we obtained only best-scored protein-coding genes from GeneCards for each of 4 epigenetic processes. This was accomplished following a precise search in PharmGKB. Thus, we separated primary genes with at least 1 significant PGx annotation from genes with no PGx annotation archived in PharmGKB. This separation aligned with the two possible ways in finding CpG-PGx SNPs represented in Figure 1. It should be clearly noted that a unique SNP may have one or more than one PGx annotation. A PGx annotation refers to a Variant-Drug-Association. More details are presented in the below.

3.1. Potential CpG-PGx SNPs

Table 1 summarizes the primary genes with epigenetic impact which have at least one significant PGx annotation based on PharmGKB. Accordingly, 22 unique genes out of 100 primary genes represented significant PGx annotation(s); notably, TP53, HDAC1, KAT2B, and SIRT1 were duplicated. TP53 is involved in Methylation, Acetylation, and Deacetylation; HDAC1, KAT2B, and SIRT1 are involved in Acetylation and Deacetylation process. The top Pharmacogene based on Table 1 was CYP2C19 with 949 significant PGx annotations; also, CYP2D6 and CYP2B6 were the second and third best-scored Pharmacogenes with 733 and 383 significant annotations, respectively. Interestingly, COMT was the 7th best-scored Pharmacogene with 121 PGx annotations. In the next step, we searched each annotation for a potential CpG-PGx SNP. Table 1 has a separate column showing this potential. Accordingly, the top gene based on the number of CpG-PGx SNP was CYP2B6 with 23 CpG-PGx SNPs followed by CYP2C19 with 21 CpG-PGx SNPs and CYP2D6 with 18 CpG-PGx SNPs. Remarkably, all of these genes are involved in the demethylation process and COMT (11 CpG-PGx SNPs) showed the top-scored gene among those are involved in Methylation process. Finally, 16 genes out of 22 genes revealed to have potential CpG-PGx SNPs (Table 1).
In the next step, we focused on each CpG-PGx SNP to check its function (Missense, Synonymous, Intronic, Spicing, 3’UTR, 5’UTR, or being in regulatory region e.g. Enhancer). To do this, we exactly checked each CpG-PGx SNP in Genome Browser via Ensembl for its both major and minor alleles. This was done for finding the CpG site formation or disruption by allele change. This is a vital check to introduce a CpG-PGx SNP for further investigations. CpG site formation is basically hidden in the Genome Browser and if a minor allele will be a C in a dinucleotide of XpG (where X can be a A, T, or G allele) or a G in a dinucleotide of CpY (where Y can be a A, C, or T allele). On the other hand, CpG site disruption comes from a SNP in either C or G of a CpG dinucleotide site (actually, there might be ApG, TpG, GpG, CpA, CpT, or CpC dinucleotides). Table 2 verifies each CpG-PGx SNP (based on known rsIDs) and its related gene, function, and CpG site situation. Generally, we found 99 CpG-PGx among them, 61 variants were missense variants, 25 variants were Intronic, 4 variants were 3’UTR, 4 variants were in a regulatory feature, 3 variants were Synonymous, 1 variant was a Spicing, and 1 variant was a Frameshift (Table 2). CYP2D6 indicated a range for having various types of variants including missense, intronic, splicing, frameshift, and missense/inframeshift variants.

3.2. The Heart of Pharmacoepigenomics

Based on the well-known data in the PGx literature, CYP2D6 is known as the heart of pharmacogenetics, however, our findings suggested CYP2B6 as the top gene based on the number of CpG-PGx SNPs. To reach a more precise comparison among the three best-scored genes including CYP2B6, CYP2C19, and CYP2D6, we considered more factors including relevance score (obtained from GeneCards), number of significant PGx annotations (Obtained from PharmGKB), CpG-PGx SNPs (presented in the Table 1), type of variants (based on the related SNP functions in Table 2), Number of CpG site formations, Number of CpG site disruptions, and presenting in the title of papers indexed in PubMed (Table 3). CYP2D6 showed the best factors (4 out of 7) including best relevance score (10.74248), having the most types of variants (5), highest number of CpG site formation (10), and highly impactful indexing (2,658 papers in their titles). We highly suggest that the other two genes (CYP2C19 and CYP2B6) represent potential candidates for being the hub genes of pharmacoepigenomics.
Diving into deeper layers of PEpGx, we extracted the remaining genes with no significant PGx Annotation and thereafter; by mining the related data of these genes in GWAS catalog, we refined the significant SNPs with p-value lower than 5E-08 and Minor Allele Frequency (MAF) of higher than 0.05. Finally, we checked them in the Genomic Region browser (https://www.ensembl.org/index.html?redirect=no) to find 1) if they can form a new CpG site (CpG forming) or 2) disrupt a present CpG site (CpG Disruptive).
Final novel CpG-SNPs are proposed for checking their PGx associations to confirm whether each of them can be a novel CpG-PGx SNP. This is the second pathway of the main idea described in Figure 1. According to the results indicated in Table 4, for all of the remaining 69 genes (some genes were involved in more than one epigenetic process), we mined 1,230 significant GWAS associations (or SNPs), which revealed 329 CpG-SNPs related to 48 genes with at least one CpG site formation or disruption. The top gene with the highest CpG-SNPs was TET2 (42 CpG-SNPs), followed by JMJD1C (35 CpG-SNPs), and HDAC9 (26 CpG-SNPs) in the second and third places, respectively. Interestingly, the demethylation process not only was the most important process, but also demethylation was present in the second, third, fourth, and fifth places. The other most important process was methylation by GRIN2A (13 CpG-SNPs).
In the next step, we separated the CpG-Disruptive SNPs from CpG-Forming SNPs. Totally, we found 173 CpG-Disruptive SNPs, 155 CpG-Forming SNPs, and just 1 CpG SNP with both disruptive and forming impacts (it can be between 2 CpG sites and disrupts one and form the second one as a new CpG site). One example we found was the intronic SNP (rs34770920) of ACAA2 gene. Moreover, we found an interesting epigenetic impact in synonymous SNPs which agrees with our previous result in potential CpG-PGx SNPs sub-section. More specifically, we found some CpG-SNPs in the Epigenetically Modifiable Accessible Region (EMAR) such as rs10849885 (KDM2B; synonymous; MAF: 0.5; CpG-Disruptive SNP), rs1667619 (TET3; synonymous; MAF: 0.47; CpG-Disruptive SNP), rs601999 (NAGLU; synonymous; MAF: 0.29; CpG-Forming SNP), and rs591939 (NAGLU; synonymous; MAF: 0.18; CpG-Forming SNP).We hereby propose that these synonymous CpG-SNPs cannot change the amino acid sequence and in result, the protein structure, also, they may have not reflect visible impacts on the “Human Genome”, but they still can be a CpG-Forming SNP and are involved in the regulatory mechanisms.
In the last step, we tried to classify both CpG-Disruptive SNPs and CpG-Forming SNPs based on their MAFs. Such this standpoint comes from an undeniable rule of statistical and epidemiological genetics which define the possibilities of carrying SNPs by individuals and in a wider view in various populations. In Table 4 and Table 5, all CpG-SNPs are presented from the most to the least common along with their functions. In this regard, there were 9 CpG-Disruptive SNPs including with the MAF of 0.5 (the highest prevalence) and 4 CpG-Disruptive SNPs with the MAF of 0.05 (the smallest prevalence).
The most prevalent CpG-Disruptive SNPs were rs2984348 (HDAC8; Enhancer), rs13245206 (HDAC9; Intronic); rs10237149 (HDAC9; Intronic), rs6951745 (HDAC9; Intronic), rs10849885 (KDM2B; Synonymous/ EMAR), rs12001316 (KDM4C, Intronic), rs3814177 (TET1; 3’UTR), rs9884984 (TET2; Intronic); and rs6533183 (TET2; Intronic) (Table 4).
Accordingly, in group of CpG-Forming SNPs, we found 13 CpG-SNPs with the highest prevalence (MAF= 0.5) and 3 CpG-SNPs with the lowest prevalence (MAF=0.05). The most prevalent CpG-Foming SNPs included rs1931537 (AR; 3’UTR), rs2116942 (DNMT1; Missense), rs1935 (JMJD1C; Missense), rs7962128 (KDM2B; 3’UTR), rs6489811 (KDM2B; Intronic), rs2613766 (KDM4B; Intronic), rs7042372 (KDM4C; Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer), rs960658 (KDM4C; Intronic), rs7037266 (KDM4C, Intronic), rs5969750 (RBBP7;3’UTR), rs7670522 (TET2; 3’UTR), rs9884296 (TET2; Intronic), and rs5952279 (KDM6A; Intronic) (Table 5).
Table 5. List of possible CpG-SNPs leading to Formation of a CpG site (novel CpG site) according to the remained genes of GWAS mining.
Table 5. List of possible CpG-SNPs leading to Formation of a CpG site (novel CpG site) according to the remained genes of GWAS mining.
SNPS Gene MAF Func
rs1931537 AR 0.5 3’UTR
rs2116942 DNMT1 0.5 Missense
rs1935 JMJD1C 0.5 Missense
rs7962128 KDM2B 0.5 3’UTR
rs6489811 KDM2B 0.5 Intronic
rs2613766 KDM4B 0.5 Intronic
rs7042372 KDM4C 0.5 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs960658 KDM4C 0.5 Intronic
rs7037266 KDM4C 0.5 Intronic
rs5969750 RBBP7 0.5 3’UTR
rs7670522 TET2 0.5 3’UTR
rs9884296 TET2 0.5 Intronic
rs5952279 KDM6A 0.5 Intronic
rs4827402 AR 0.49 Intronic
rs739842 HDAC7 0.49 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs10995505 JMJD1C 0.49 Intronic
rs62647699 KDM4B 0.49 Intronic
rs9876116 MLH1 0.49 Intronic
rs10193548 HDAC4 0.48 Intronic
rs6658300 KDM4A 0.48 Intronic
rs8089411 MBD2 0.48 Intronic
rs7616853 SLC33A1 0.48 Intronic
rs9949052 ACAA2 0.47 Intronic
rs9676981 KDM4B 0.47 Intronic
rs6794232 SLC33A1 0.47 Intronic
rs10237366 HDAC9 0.46 Intronic
rs17429745 TET2 0.46 Intronic
rs62331124 TET2 0.46 Intronic
rs10998356 TET1 0.45 Intronic
rs1097784 GRIN2A 0.44 Intronic
rs4852018 HDAC4 0.44 Intronic
rs661818 HDAC9 0.44 Intronic/ Enhaner
rs9646283 CDH1 0.43 Intronic
rs9415676 JMJD1C 0.43 Intronic
rs11865499 KAT8 0.43 Intronic
rs4911257 DNMT3B 0.42 Intronic
rs2647239 TET2 0.42 Intronic
rs2466920 TET2 0.42 Intronic
rs2454206 TET2 0.42 Missense
rs12150830 ACAA2 0.41 Intronic
rs10761765 JMJD1C 0.41 Intronic
rs1868289 GRIN2A 0.4 Intronic
rs12241767 TET1 0.4 Missense
rs10822163 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs7923609 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10822160 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs7095571 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10761771 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs4405189 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10444491 KDM2B 0.39 Intronic
rs609292 HDAC5 0.38 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs7031625 KDM4C 0.38 Intronic
rs7683416 TET2 0.38 Intronic
rs7070693 JMJD1C 0.37 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs2285657 KAT2A 0.37 Intronic
rs4807687 KDM4B 0.37 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs35158985 CDH1 0.36 Intronic
rs9925964 KAT8 0.36 Splicing/ Enhancer/ EMAR
rs34770920 ACAA2 0.36 Intronic
rs8093891 ACAA2 0.35 Intronic
rs1900101 ACACA 0.35 Intonic
rs7201930 GRIN2A 0.35 Intronic
rs7812296 HDAC9 0.35 3’UTR
rs10761737 JMJD1C 0.35 Intronic
rs9414802 JMJD1C 0.35 Intronic
rs9795476 SIRT3 0.35 Intronic/ EMAR
rs710956 KDM4B 0.34 Intronic
rs2647234 TET2 0.34 Intronic
rs9964304 ACAA2 0.33 Intronic
rs7190785 GRIN2A 0.33 Intronic
rs169080 KDM4B 0.33 Intronic
rs7191183 GRIN2A 0.32 Intronic
rs8088929 ACAA2 0.31 Intronic
rs7307046 HDAC7 0.31 Intronic
rs34550543 KDM4A 0.31 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs7191999 GRIN2A 0.3 Intronic
rs3791452 HDAC4 0.3 Intronic
rs4758633 SIRT3 0.3 Intronic
rs10902106 SIRT3 0.3 Intronic
rs62621450 TET2 0.3 Missense
rs1997797 DNMT3B 0.29 Splicing
rs601999 NAGLU 0.29 Synonymous/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs28608872 CDH1 0.28 Intronic
rs7972177 HDAC7 0.28 Intronic
rs10975974 KDM4C 0.28 Intronic
rs10022109 TET2 0.28 Intronic
rs10744776 ACACB 0.27 Intronic
rs9646284 CDH1 0.27 Intronic
rs2424905 DNMT3B 0.27 Intronic
rs137993948 KDM1A 0.27 Intronic
rs79491673 MBD2 0.27 EMAR/ Enhancer
rs1023430 SIRT3 0.27 Intronic
rs350844 SIRT6 0.27 Intronic
rs904274 TET2 0.27 Intronic
rs2072945 KDM1A 0.26 Intronic
rs57917116 KDM2B 0.26 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs13103161 TET2 0.26 Intronic
rs2011779 CDH1 0.25 Intronic
rs4420522 CDH1 0.24 Intronic
rs2526639 HDAC9 0.24 Intronic
rs28540102 KDM4B 0.24 Intronic
rs7208787 KDM6B 0.24 EMAR
rs7661349 TET2 0.24 Intronic/ Promoter/ EMAR
rs1654885 ACACB 0.23 Intronic
rs56137247 HDAC4 0.23 Intronic
rs11726786 TET2 0.23 Intronic
rs2133084 TET2 0.23 Intronic
rs6533181 TET2 0.23 Intronic
rs6087992 DNMT3B 0.22 Intronic
rs3791478 HDAC4 0.22 Intronic
rs4507125 HDAC4 0.22 Enhancer
rs2030057 TET1 0.22 Intronic
rs11168236 HDAC7 0.21 Intronic
rs75601653 KAT5 0.21 Intronic
rs407258 SLC33A1 0.21 Intronic
rs1977825 TET1 0.21 Intronic
rs28628339 CDH1 0.2 Intronic
rs7510675 EP300 0.2 Intronic
rs4760624 HDAC7 0.2 Intronic
rs302177 HDAC9 0.2 Intronic
rs2393967 JMJD1C 0.2 Intronic
rs4832290 KDM3A 0.2 Intronic
rs2523162 HDAC5 0.19 Intronic
rs13243921 HDAC9 0.19 Intronic
rs2620832 KDM4B 0.19 Intronic
rs6818511 TET2 0.19 Intronic
rs13632 HDAC7 0.18 3’UTR
rs3791033 KDM4A 0.18 Intronic
rs591939 NAGLU 0.18 Synonymous/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs7499643 CREBBP 0.17 Intronic
rs78628688 KDM2B 0.17 Intronic
rs10010512 TET2 0.17 Intronic
rs7896294 JMJD1C 0.16 Intronic
rs58324296 KDM4B 0.16 3’UTR/ EMAR
rs12352785 KDM4C 0.16 Intronic
rs61393039 HDAC9 0.15 Intronic
rs10975917 KDM4C 0.13 Intronic
rs11662691 ACAA2 0.12 Intronic
rs2288937 DNMT1 0.12 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs34149349 HDAC7 0.12 Intronic
rs2894069 TET1 0.12 Intronic
rs7206296 GRIN2A 0.09 Intronic
rs13337187 GRIN2A 0.09 Intronic
rs12250472 JMJD1C 0.09 Intronic
rs75321784 TET2 0.09 Intronic
rs17430251 TET2 0.09 Intronic
rs71524263 HDAC9 0.08 Intronic/ OpenChromatin/ EMAR
rs1549349 KDM2B 0.08 Intronic
rs138578374 HDAC4 0.07 Intronic
rs2630452 HDAC11 0.07 Intronic
rs2655232 HDAC11 0.07 Intronic
rs62115563 KDM4B 0.07 Intronic
rs2675229 HDAC11 0.06 Intronic
rs77074018 HDAC11 0.05 Intronic
rs41274072 JMJD1C 0.05 Missense
rs61031471 KDM6B 0.05 Missense
MAF and EMAR mean Minor Allele Frequency and Epigenetically Modified Accessible Region.

4. Discussion

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first-ever paper introducing CpG-PGx SNP as a novel candidate in a Genomic-Epigenomic-Phenomic-Pharmacogenomics (GEPh-PGx) axis. GEPh-PGx suggests a complicated network of regulatory-functional interactions initiating from the smallest genetic block (SNP) to the broader cellular and molecular interplay leading to known and unknown phenotypes which in term, are linked to pharmacological interactions and treatments. Briefly, GEPh-PGx represents a new aspect of Personalized Medicine based on disruption or formation of a CpG site by allele changes in a SNP. This phenomenon clearly helps explain the trans-regulation processes in which these CpG sites can present or remove the possible epigenetic tags for Methylation/Demethylation reactions.
What we designed was a logical and comprehensive strategy of analysis based on the well-known and documented list of various genes in all 4 classical epigenetic processes including Methylation, Demethylation, Acetylation, Acetylation, and Deacetylation. In the current investigation, we mined the CpG sites for all these genes involved in methylation/demethylation and also included genes for acetylation and deacetylation processes. Therefore, we selected 100 genes and following removing the duplications (some genes were present in more than one epigenetic process like TP53), 91 unique genes remained. We followed two pathways including searching and introducing potential CpG-PGx SNPs and possible CpG-SNPs to be newly confirmed CpG-PGx SNPs. We found 3 major genes for having the highest number of potential CpG-PGx SNPs including CYP2B6, CYP2C19, andCYP2D6, among them, CYP2D6 was found to be the heart of pharmacoepigenomics. Finally, after a deep search based on GWAS data, we found TET2 as the top-scored candidate for future PGx confirmations according to its number of possible CpG-SNPs.
There are inadequate studies concerning CpG-SNPs (10 papers in PubMed with CpG-SNP in their titles). All the PubMed-indexed papers for CpG-SNPs can be divided into 3 main categories including Neuropsychological disorders such as suicidal behavior in subjects with schizophrenia [22], psychosis [23] and major depression disorder [24], metabolic disorders including type 2 diabetes [25,26] and obesity [27,28], and cancer biology [29].
Pharmacoepigenetics and Pharmacoepigenomics revealed a better result compared with CpG-SNPs in the literature. We found 24 papers in PubMed with the Pharmacoepigenetics or Pharmacoepigenomics in their titles. Interestingly, similar to the aforementioned 3 major categories, these papers focused on the same categories. Montagna was one of the first scientists who discussed the epigenetic and pharmacoepigenetics processes in primary headaches and pain [30]. Leach et al reviewed pharmacoepigenetics in heart failure and cardiovascular disease (CVD) and concluded that because epigenetics has a vital role in shaping phenotypic variation in health and disease, understanding and manipulating the epigenome has massive capacity for the treatment and prevention of common human diseases [31]. In the context of cancer, Candelaria et al with an emphasis on gemcitabine, reviewed an update of genetic and epigenetic bases that might account for inter-individual variations in therapeutic results [32]. Accordingly, Nasr et al studied pharmacoepigenetics in breast cancer [33], Fornaro et al reviewed pharmacoepigenetics in gastrointestinal cancer [34], and Gutierrez-Camino et al reported pharmacoepigenetics in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia [35]. In a meta-analysis, Chu and Yang systematically studied the population diversity impact of DNA methylation on the treatment response and drug ADME in various tissue and cancer types. They concluded that ethnicity should be cautiously considered for in future pharmacoepigenetics explorations [36]. Notably, Nuotio et al performed a genome-wide methylation analysis of responsiveness to four classes of antihypertensive drugs in pharmacoepigenetics of hypertension [37].
The last and most important topic in pharmacoepigenetics is psychological and behavioral phenotypes such as generalized anxiety disorder [38], Alzheimer’s disease [39], and depression [40], and opioid addiction [41].
Epigenetic variants have been found near genes and gene regulators, which control the metabolism of drugs, suggesting a role for epigenetic mechanisms in modulating pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics [42,43,44]. Pharmacoepigenetics, is the field that studies how epigenetic variability impacts variability in drug response [16]. Of note, Smith et al’s idea is completely consistent with our standpoint. They stated that first, we can detect variation in epigenetic markers, second, we can choose key epigenetic biomarker(s) in regions of variance, and third, we can map these biomarker(s) to a drug-response phenotype [16]. Smith et al’s idea clearly agrees with our initial idea of a GEPh-PGx axis.
Since we found that the TET2 gene was top, it is important to point out that it is — a key player in epigenetics, hematopoiesis, and cancer biology. Its full name is Tet methylcytosine dioxygenase 2 located on chromosome 4q24. TET2 is part of the TET family of enzymes, which convert 5-methylcytosine (5mC) to 5-hydroxymethylcytosine (5hmC), playing a role in DNA demethylation and epigenetic regulation. Specifically, TET2 is involved in regulation of gene expression; stem cell differentiation, especially in hematopoiesis (formation of blood cells); immune system regulation; epigenetic reprogramming during development. Interestingly, mutations in TET2 are somatic (acquired) and commonly found in 1) Myeloid malignancies such as Myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS); acute myeloid leukemia (AML); Chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML); Myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPNs), and 2) Lymphoid cancers such as Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma (AITL) and Peripheral T-cell lymphoma (PTCL). It is also known that TET2 mutations are among the most common in Clonal Hematopoiesis of Indeterminate Potential (CHIP), a condition where aging individuals develop hematopoietic clones without having full-blown cancer — but with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease and leukemia. Clinically, TET2 mutations may signal different outcomes depending on the context of the disease. TET2-mutant cancers may respond differently to hypomethylating agents (like azacitidine or decitabine). Vitamin C (ascorbate) has been studied to enhance TET activity and DNA demethylation in TET2-deficient cells (preclinical). TET2 mutations often co-occur with others (e.g., ASXL1, DNMT3A, IDH2), affecting disease progression and treatment [45,46].
The current study faced with some limitations which should be considered to be covered in the similar future investigations. First of all, we used GeneCards data which may get updates based on novel findings in the literature; thus, it should be considered that this study performed on July 2025. The other limitation may rely on the number of included genes which means that the future works should definitely generate a bigger primary gene list. The other issue may be lack of additional in silico investigations on trans-regulation interactions of both potential CpG-PGx SNPs and possible CpG-PGx SNPs; more clearly, a forming CpG site SNP should be check for its new positive/negative binding affinities. Obviously, the clinical and real-world confirmations are highly recommended for validating our findings.

5. Conclusions

In conclusion, pharmacoepigenetics can provide novel insights into PGx approaches and describes complicated mechanisms involved in Personalized Medicine treatment options. CpG-PGx SNPs can represent novel potential biomarkers in PGx and epigenomics which requires more confirmation by real-world clinical findings. Based on our data we recommend that the scientific community intensively investigate the top-scored genes reported in the current study such as CYP2B, CYP2D6, CYP2C19, and TET2 with psychiatric and other related phenotypes. Additionally, in this study, we exposed some synonymous PGx SNPs that may be involved in a CpG-PGx Disruption/Formation processes as novel clues for their impact in PGx (potential CpG-PGx SNPs). We further found other synonymous CpG-SNPs in the EMAR confirming our primary results and highlighting the uncovered roles of synonymous SNPs in regulatory mechanisms instead of functional alterations in protein structures.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization, A. S. and K.B.; methodology, A.S.; software, A.S.; validation, A.S. and K.B.; formal analysis, A.S.; investigation, A.S.; resources, A.S.; data curation, A.S.; writing—original draft preparation, A.S., K.B., and K.U.L.; writing—review and editing, A.S., K.B., K.U.L., I.E., D.B., A.P., P.K.T., R.K.A.F., S.S., E.L.G., M.P.L., A.PL.L., and M.S.G.; visualization, A.S.; supervision, A.S. and K.B.; project administration, A.S.; All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Funding

R21 DA045640/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States, I01 CX002099/CX/CSRD VA/United States, R33 DA045640/DA/NIDA NIH HHS/United States, R41 MD012318/MD/NIMHD NIH HHS/United States, I01 CX000479/CX/CSRD VA/United States.

Institutional Review Board Statement

Not applicable.

Informed Consent Statement

Not applicable.

Data Availability Statement

Any further data will be available on a reasonable request from the corresponding author via email (alirezasharafshah@yahoo.com).

Acknowledgments

Not applicable.

Conflicts of Interest

Dr. Kenneth Blum is the inventor of both GARS and KB220, which have been assigned to TranspliceGen Holdings, Inc. There are no other conflicts of interest.

Abbreviations

The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
GWAS Genome-Wide Association Studies
PGx Pharmacogenomics
PEpGx Pharmacoepigenomics
SNP Single Nucleotide Polymorphism
EMAR Epigenetically Modifiable Accessible Region
meQTLs methylation quantitative trait loci
G-E-Ph-PGx Genomic-Epigenomic-Phenomic-Pharmacogenomics
FDR False Discovery Rate
MAF Minor Allele Frequency

References

  1. MacArthur, J. , et al., The new NHGRI-EBI Catalog of published genome-wide association studies (GWAS Catalog). Nucleic acids research, p: 45(D1).
  2. Gallagher, M.D. and A.S. Chen-Plotkin, The post-GWAS era: from association to function. The American Journal of Human Genetics.
  3. Maurano, M.T. , et al., Systematic localization of common disease-associated variation in regulatory DNA. Science, p: 337(6099), 6099. [Google Scholar]
  4. Nicolae, D.L. , et al., Trait-associated SNPs are more likely to be eQTLs: annotation to enhance discovery from GWAS. PLoS genetics, p: 6(4), 1000. [Google Scholar]
  5. Chen, L. , et al., Genetic drivers of epigenetic and transcriptional variation in human immune cells. Cell, p: 167(5), 1398. [Google Scholar]
  6. Tehranchi, A.K. , et al., Pooled ChIP-Seq links variation in transcription factor binding to complex disease risk. Cell, 2016. 165(3): p. 730-741.
  7. Zhang, X. , et al., Identification of common genetic variants controlling transcript isoform variation in human whole blood. Nature genetics, p: 47(4).
  8. Maher, B. , Personal genomes: The case of the missing heritability. 2008, Nature Publishing Group UK London.
  9. Gibbs, J.R. , et al., Abundant quantitative trait loci exist for DNA methylation and gene expression in human brain. PLoS genetics, p: 6(5), 1000. [Google Scholar]
  10. Bell, J.T. , et al., DNA methylation patterns associate with genetic and gene expression variation in HapMap cell lines. Genome biology, 2011. 12(1): p. R10.
  11. Shoemaker, R. , et al., Allele-specific methylation is prevalent and is contributed by CpG-SNPs in the human genome. Genome research, p: 20(7).
  12. Zhang, D. , et al., Genetic control of individual differences in gene-specific methylation in human brain. The American Journal of Human Genetics, p: 86(3).
  13. Gertz, J. , et al., Analysis of DNA methylation in a three-generation family reveals widespread genetic influence on epigenetic regulation. PLoS genetics, p: 7(8), 1002. [Google Scholar]
  14. Hellman, A. and A. Chess, Extensive sequence-influenced DNA methylation polymorphism in the human genome. Epigenetics & chromatin.
  15. Majchrzak-Celińska, A. and W. Baer-Dubowska, Pharmacoepigenetics: an element of personalized therapy? Expert Opinion on Drug Metabolism & Toxicology.
  16. Smith, D.A., M. C. Sadler, and R.B. Altman, Promises and challenges in pharmacoepigenetics. Cambridge Prisms: Precision Medicine, p: 1.
  17. Bustin, S.A. and K.A. Jellinger, Advances in molecular medicine: unravelling disease complexity and pioneering precision healthcare. 2023, 1416. [Google Scholar]
  18. Griñán-Ferré, C. , et al., Advancing personalized medicine in neurodegenerative diseases: The role of epigenetics and pharmacoepigenomics in pharmacotherapy. Pharmacological Research, p: 205, 1072. [Google Scholar]
  19. Stelzer, G. , et al., The GeneCards suite: from gene data mining to disease genome sequence analyses. Current protocols in bioinformatics, p: 54(1).
  20. Whirl-Carrillo, M. , et al., An evidence-based framework for evaluating pharmacogenomics knowledge for personalized medicine. Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics.
  21. Cerezo, M. , et al., The NHGRI-EBI GWAS Catalog: standards for reusability, sustainability and diversity. Nucleic acids research, p: 53(D1), 1005. [Google Scholar]
  22. Polsinelli, G. , et al., Association and CpG SNP analysis of HTR4 polymorphisms with suicidal behavior in subjects with schizophrenia. Journal of Neural Transmission,.
  23. Van Den Oord, E.J. , et al., A whole methylome CpG-SNP association study of psychosis in blood and brain tissue. Schizophrenia bulletin, p: 42(4), 1018. [Google Scholar]
  24. Aberg, K.A. , et al., Convergence of evidence from a methylome-wide CpG-SNP association study and GWAS of major depressive disorder. Translational psychiatry, p: 8(1).
  25. Torkamandi, S. , et al., Association of CpG-SNP and 3’UTR-SNP of WFS1 with the Risk of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus in an Iranian Population. International Journal of Molecular and Cellular Medicine, p: 6(4).
  26. Vohra, M. , et al., CpG-SNP site methylation regulates allele-specific expression of MTHFD1 gene in type 2 diabetes. Laboratory Investigation, p: 100(8), 1090. [Google Scholar]
  27. Mansego, M.L. , et al., SH2B1 CpG-SNP is associated with body weight reduction in obese subjects following a dietary restriction program. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, 2015. 66(1): p. 1-9.
  28. de Toro-Martín, J. , et al., A CpG-SNP located within the ARPC3 gene promoter is associated with hypertriglyceridemia in severely obese patients. Annals of Nutrition and Metabolism, p: 68(3).
  29. Harlid, S. , et al., A candidate CpG SNP approach identifies a breast cancer associated ESR1-SNP. International journal of cancer, p: 129(7), 1689. [Google Scholar]
  30. Montagna, P. , Epigenetics and pharmaco-epigenetics in the primary headaches. The Journal of Headache and Pain, 193–194.
  31. Mateo Leach, I., P. Van Der Harst, and R.A. De Boer, Pharmacoepigenetics in heart failure. Current heart failure reports, p: 7(2).
  32. Candelaria, M. , et al., Pharmacogenetics and pharmacoepigenetics of gemcitabine. Medical oncology, p: 27(4), 1133. [Google Scholar]
  33. Nasr, R. , et al., The pharmacoepigenetics of drug metabolism and transport in breast cancer: review of the literature and in silico analysis. Pharmacogenomics, p: 17(14), 1573. [Google Scholar]
  34. Fornaro, L. , et al., Pharmacoepigenetics in gastrointestinal tumors: MGMT methylation and beyond. Front Biosci, p: 2016. 8, 2016. [Google Scholar]
  35. Gutierrez-Camino, A. , et al., Pharmacoepigenetics in childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia: involvement of miRNA polymorphisms in hepatotoxicity. Epigenomics, p: 10(4).
  36. Chu, S.-K. and H.-C. Yang, Interethnic DNA methylation difference and its implications in pharmacoepigenetics. Epigenomics, p: 9(11), 1437. [Google Scholar]
  37. Nuotio, M.-L. , et al., Pharmacoepigenetics of hypertension: genome-wide methylation analysis of responsiveness to four classes of antihypertensive drugs using a double-blind crossover study design. Epigenetics, p: 17(11), 1432. [Google Scholar]
  38. Tomasi, J. , et al., Towards precision medicine in generalized anxiety disorder: Review of genetics and pharmaco (epi) genetics. Journal of psychiatric research, p: 119.
  39. Cacabelos, R. , et al., Sirtuins in Alzheimer’s disease: SIRT2-related genophenotypes and implications for pharmacoepigenetics. International journal of molecular sciences, 2019. 20(5): p. 1249.
  40. Hack, L.M. , et al., Moving pharmacoepigenetics tools for depression toward clinical use. Journal of affective disorders, p: 249.
  41. Knothe, C. , et al., Pharmacoepigenetics of the role of DNA methylation in μ-opioid receptor expression in different human brain regions. Epigenomics, p: 8(12), 1583. [Google Scholar]
  42. Kacevska, M., M. Ivanov, and M. Ingelman-Sundberg, Epigenetic-dependent regulation of drug transport and metabolism: an update. Pharmacogenomics, p: 13(12), 1373. [Google Scholar]
  43. He, Y. , et al., The effects of micro RNA on the absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs. British Journal of Pharmacology, p: 172(11), 2733. [Google Scholar]
  44. Shi, Y. , et al., Combined study of genetic and epigenetic biomarker risperidone treatment efficacy in Chinese Han schizophrenia patients. Translational psychiatry, 1170. [Google Scholar]
  45. Wu, X. , et al., Pedigree investigation, clinical characteristics, and prognosis analysis of haematological disease patients with germline TET2 mutation. BMC Cancer, p: 22(1).
  46. Buckingham, L. , et al., Somatic variants of potential clinical significance in the tumors of BRCA phenocopies. Hereditary Cancer in Clinical Practice,.
Figure 1. The whole process of initial idea for Pharmacoepigenomics summarized in a hierarchal flow. Main epigenetic processes (*) here means methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation. 1 and 2 refer to the two plausible ways to find a CpG-PGx SNP, in which, the way number 1 is easier than number 2, but number 2 can introduce new CpG-PGx SNP(s) compared with number 1. GeneCards, PharmGKB, and GWAS catalog are employed in this design.
Figure 1. The whole process of initial idea for Pharmacoepigenomics summarized in a hierarchal flow. Main epigenetic processes (*) here means methylation, demethylation, acetylation, and deacetylation. 1 and 2 refer to the two plausible ways to find a CpG-PGx SNP, in which, the way number 1 is easier than number 2, but number 2 can introduce new CpG-PGx SNP(s) compared with number 1. GeneCards, PharmGKB, and GWAS catalog are employed in this design.
Preprints 168391 g001
Table 1. Primary genes with significant PGx annotation(s) based on PharmGKB database and their potential CpG-PGx SNP(s).
Table 1. Primary genes with significant PGx annotation(s) based on PharmGKB database and their potential CpG-PGx SNP(s).
Gene Epigenetic Process Relevance Score Significant PGx Annotation CpG-PGx SNP
CYP2B6 Demethylation 10.40399 383 23
CYP2C19 Demethylation 7.372463 949 21
CYP2D6 Demethylation 10.74248 733 18
COMT Methylation 18.34278 121 11
CYP3A4 Demethylation 12.93115 282 8
FTO Demethylation 14.13657 11 4
MTHFR Methylation 17.11379 151 3
CYP1A2 Demethylation 10.08261 84 2
GRIN2B Methylation 22.91825 5 2
NAT2 Acetylation 40.88459 155 1
TP53 Methylation 20.33753 11 1
MECP2 Methylation 38.57069 3 1
CDKN2A Methylation 26.32699 1 1
DNMT3A Methylation 25.22683 1 1
KAT2B Acetylation 25.24294 1 1
SIN3A Deacetylation 5.800954 1 1
ACSS2 Acetylation 19.99729 2 0
HDAC1 Acetylation 17.49331 2 0
MGMT Methylation 35.78139 1 0
EHMT2 Methylation 21.40185 1 0
RASSF1 Methylation 18.96314 1 0
SIRT1 Acetylation 17.80751 1 0
Table 2. Details of CpG-PGx SNPs found in 22 primary genes highlighting on their functions and CpG site formation/disruption.
Table 2. Details of CpG-PGx SNPs found in 22 primary genes highlighting on their functions and CpG site formation/disruption.
SNP (rsID) Gene Function CpG site situation
rs1038376 CYP2B6 3’UTR Forming
rs138264188 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs141666881 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs142421637 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs148009906 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs1969136524 CYP2B6 Missense Forming
rs200458614 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs3181842 CYP2B6 3UTR Disruptive
rs3211371 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs36118214 CYP2B6 Intronic Disruptive
rs373442191 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs374099483 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs3786547 CYP2B6 Intronic Forming
rs535039125 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs553968231 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs58871670 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs707265 CYP2B6 Missense Forming
rs7246465 CYP2B6 3’UTR Forming
rs750671397 CYP2B6 Missense Forming
rs752695347 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs764288403 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs772413158 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs8192709 CYP2B6 Missense Disruptive
rs4244285 CYP2C19 Synonymous Disruptive
rs3814637 CYP2C19 Intronic Disruptive
rs183701923 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs140278421 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs145119820 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs17878459 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs3758581 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs181297724 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs118203756 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs138142612 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs72552267 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs749678783 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs764137538 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs200346442 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs200150287 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs763625282 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs150152656 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs7902257 CYP2C19 Intronic Disruptive
rs370803989 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs145328984 CYP2C19 Missense Disruptive
rs41291556 CYP2C19 Missense Forming
rs1058172 CYP2D6 Missense Disruptive
rs1065852 CYP2D6 Missense Forming
rs1080985 CYP2D6 Missense Forming+Disruptive
rs1080989 CYP2D6 Intronic Disruptive
rs111564371 CYP2D6 Intronic Forming
rs112568578 CYP2D6 Missense Disruptive
rs1230912765 CYP2D6 Missense Disruptive
rs138417770 CYP2D6 Missense Forming+Disruptive
rs16947 CYP2D6 Missense Disruptive
rs1985842 CYP2D6 Intronic Forming
rs28371699 CYP2D6 Intronic Disruptive
rs28371726 CYP2D6 Missense Forming
rs28371738 CYP2D6 Intronic Forming
rs35742686* CYP2D6 Frameshift Forming
rs3892097 CYP2D6 Splice Acceptor Forming
rs745746329 CYP2D6 Missense+ Inframeshift Disruptive
rs76187628 CYP2D6 Missense Forming
rs777560972 CYP2D6 Missense Disruptive
rs165599 COMT 3’UTR Disruptive
rs174699 COMT Intronic Disruptive
rs2239393 COMT Intronic Forming
rs4633 COMT Synonymous Disruptive
rs4646316 COMT Intronic Disruptive
rs4680 COMT Missense Disruptive
rs5746849 COMT Intronic+ Enhancer Forming
rs6269 COMT 3utr+CTCF Forming
rs7287550 COMT Intronic Forming
rs740603 COMT Intronic+ Enhancer Forming
rs933271 COMT intronic+ Enhancer Forming
rs1203844 CYP3A4 Intronic Disruptive
rs12721627 CYP3A4 Missense Forming
rs35599367 CYP3A4 Missense Disruptive
rs3735451 CYP3A4 Intronic Forming
rs4646437 CYP3A4 Missense Disruptive
rs4986907 CYP3A4 Missense Disruptive
rs4986909 CYP3A4 Missense Forming
rs4986910 CYP3A4 Missense Forming
rs12596638 FTO Intronic Disruptive
rs16952570 FTO Intronic Forming
rs79206939 FTO Missense Disruptive
rs9940629 FTO Intronic Forming
rs1801133 MTHFR Missense Disruptive
rs2274976 MTHFR Missense Disruptive
rs3737967 MTHFR Missense Disruptive
rs12720461 CYP1A2 Intronic Disruptive
rs762551 CYP1A2 Intronic Forming
rs2058878 GRIN2B Intronic Forming
rs1806201 GRIN2B Synonymous Disruptive
rs1799930 NAT2 Missense Disruptive
rs1042522 TP53 Missense Forming
rs1734787 MECP2 Intronic Forming
rs759922342 CDKN2A Missense Forming
rs2304429 DNMT3A Intronic Disruptive
rs9829896 KAT2B Intronic Disruptive
rs7166737 SIN3A Intronic Forming
Table 3. Comparison among the three best-scored genes having CpG-PGx SNPs for finding the heart of Pharmacoepigenomics.
Table 3. Comparison among the three best-scored genes having CpG-PGx SNPs for finding the heart of Pharmacoepigenomics.
Gene Relevance Score Significant PGx Annotations Total CpG-PGx SNPs Type of variants Number of CpG site Formations Number of CpG site Disruptions Indexed in PubMed
CYP2D6 10.74248 733 18 5 10 10 2,658
CYP2C19 7.372463 949 21 3 7 14 2,057
CYP2B6 10.40399 383 23 3 6 17 580
Possible CpG-PGx SNPs.
Table 4. Results of searching CpG site Formation/Disruption among remained genes based on GWAS catalog associations.
Table 4. Results of searching CpG site Formation/Disruption among remained genes based on GWAS catalog associations.
Gene Epigenetic Process Relevance Score GWAS-based refined SNP CpG SNP
TET2 Demethylation 11.1206 148 42
JMJD1C Demethylation 10.36812 174 35
HDAC9 Deacetylation 9.43903 130 26
KDM4B Demethylation 8.900465 50 22
KDM2B Demethylation 8.859386 35 14
GRIN2A Methylation 21.42977142 59 13
HDAC7 Deacetylation 7.25612 34 13
ACAA2 Acetylation 15.70166 52 12
HDAC4 Deacetylation 8.759825 34 12
TET1 Demethylation 12.24121 34 12
CDH1 Methylation 18.68703842 27 10
KDM4C Demethylation 9.926583 40 10
DNMT3B Methylation 25.82717514 29 9
HDAC11 Deacetylation 5.730898 10 8
SLC33A1 Acetylation 21.82475 20 7
ACACA Acetylation 36.13462 17 6
DNMT1 Methylation 33.36149979 25 6
KAT8 Acetylation 15.52563 11 6
NAGLU Acetylation 20.19837 6 5
SIRT3 Deacetylation 9.975184 23 5
EP300 Acetylation/ Deacetylation 34.95532/ 8.402884 23 4
HDAC5 Deacetylation 7.853906 16 4
MBD2 Methylation 28.06098938 20 4
PRMT5 Methylation 19.25225449 1 1
ACACB Acetylation 22.3765 12 3
ACSS1 Acetylation 15.36008 14 3
AR Methylation 19.19925117 8 3
HDAC2 Acetylation/ Deacetylation 14.69187/ 10.94646 10 3
KDM4A Demethylation 11.33719 20 3
KDM6B Demethylation 9.335324 11 3
ALKBH5 Demethylation 10.9696 10 2
CREBBP Acetylation/Deacetylattion 23.61674/ 4.776761 7 2
EZH2 Methylation 17.65591049 6 2
KDM1A Demethylation 15.8258 9 2
NAT1 Acetylation 15.67783 5 2
RBBP7 Deacetylation 4.671091 4 2
TET3 Demethylation 10.49595 19 2
ALKBH1 Demethylation 8.964048 4 1
HDAC8 Deacetylation 8.406831 3 1
KAT2A Acetylation 18.43493 7 1
KAT5 Acetylation 21.23479 5 1
KDM3A Demethylation 10.28292 2 1
KDM6A Demethylation 8.683799 2 1
MLH1 Methylation 22.98958206 1 1
MTA2 Deacetylation 4.632188 3 1
PRMT1 Methylation 21.30334854 3 1
SIRT6 Deacetylation 10.88304 1 1
TDG Demethylation 8.484888 1 1
Notably, the acceptable association for further checking of CpG site situations had p<5E-08) and MAF of higher than 0.05.
Table 4. List of possible CpG-SNPs leading to Disruption of a CpG site based on the remained genes of GWAS mining.
Table 4. List of possible CpG-SNPs leading to Disruption of a CpG site based on the remained genes of GWAS mining.
SNPS Gene MAF Function
rs2984348 HDAC8 0.5 Enhancer
rs13245206 HDAC9 0.5 Intronic
rs10237149 HDAC9 0.5 Intronic
rs6951745 HDAC9 0.5 Intronic
rs10849885 KDM2B 0.5 Synonymous/ EMAR
rs12001316 KDM4C 0.5 Intronic
rs3814177 TET1 0.5 3’UTR
rs9884984 TET2 0.5 Intronic
rs6533183 TET2 0.5 Intronic
rs742630 DNMT3B 0.49 Intronic
rs1569686 DNMT3B 0.49 Intronic
rs13242758 HDAC9 0.49 Intronic
rs10995489 JMJD1C 0.49 Intronic
rs2610528 MBD2 0.49 Intronic
rs10010325 TET2 0.49 Intronic
rs2903385 TET2 0.49 Intronic
rs11097882 TET2 0.49 Intronic
rs6083730 ACSS1 0.48 Intronic
rs6083730 ACSS1 0.48 Intronic
rs756854 HDAC9 0.48 Intronic
rs86312 NAGLU 0.48 Missense/ EMAR
rs4982708 PRMT5 0.48 Intronic
rs6441017 SLC33A1 0.48 Intronic
rs2647243 TET2 0.48 Intronic
rs732770 ACACA 0.47 Enhancer
rs4903626 ALKBH1 0.47 Intronic
rs6087988 DNMT3B 0.47 TF binding/ Enhancer
rs1978485 KAT8 0.47 Intronic
rs17693103 NAT1 0.47 Intronic
rs5969751 RBBP7 0.47 3’UTR
rs1667619 TET3 0.47 Synonymous/ EMAR+ Enhancer
rs10237280 HDAC9 0.46 Intronic
rs1057199 KDM4C 0.46 Intronic
rs12700003 HDAC9 0.45 Intronic
rs2597512 HDAC11 0.45 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs2613765 KDM4B 0.45 Intronic
rs5918763 AR 0.45 Intronic
rs910527 ACSS1 0.44 Intronic
rs59735493 KAT8 0.43 Intronic
rs9789310 KDM4B 0.43 Intronic
rs7663401 TET2 0.43 Intronic
rs717388 HDAC2 0.42 Intronic
rs6479901 JMJD1C 0.42 Intronic
rs28725459 KAT8 0.42 Intronic
rs2664419 TET1 0.42 Intronic
rs62332762 TET2 0.42 Intronic
rs112114764 HDAC5 0.41 Promoter
rs10822145 JMJD1C 0.41 Intronic
rs2613786 KDM4B 0.41 Intronic
rs828867 TET3 0.41 3’UTR
rs2680392 ACACA 0.4 Intonic
rs9929218 CDH1 0.4 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs60920123 GRIN2A 0.4 Intronic
rs2107595 HDAC9 0.4 Enhancer/ EMAR
rs12983032 KDM4B 0.4 Intronic
rs11721948 TET2 0.4 Intronic
rs7895472 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10822168 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10995527 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10761723 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs10822161 JMJD1C 0.39 Intronic
rs2047409 TET2 0.39 Missense/ EMAR
rs2007403 TET2 0.39 Intronic
rs7215365 ACACA 0.38 Intonic
rs11913442 EP300 0.38 Promoter
rs7077580 JMJD1C 0.38 Intronic
rs7098181 JMJD1C 0.37 Intronic/ EMAR
rs7084707 JMJD1C 0.37 Intronic
rs61320757 KAT8 0.37 Intronic
rs35291459 HDAC4 0.36 Synonymous
rs7902343 JMJD1C 0.36 Intronic
rs2047408 TET2 0.35 Intronic
rs12450937 ACACA 0.34 Intonic
rs1040553 DNMT3B 0.34 Intronic
rs993419 DNMT3B 0.34 Intronic
rs9922678 GRIN2A 0.34 Intronic
rs17139675 HDAC9 0.34 Intronic
rs11065589 KDM2B 0.34 Intronic
rs4780790 GRIN2A 0.33 Intronic
rs1543158 NAGLU 0.33 Intronic
rs2301718 TET2 0.33 Intronic/ Promoter/ EMAR
rs7776786 HDAC9 0.32 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs9994426 TET2 0.31 Intronic
rs28758996 KDM2B 0.3 Intronic
rs12578785 KDM2B 0.3 Intronic
rs28663167 KDM2B 0.3 Intronic
rs10998287 TET1 0.3 Intronic
rs13389265 HDAC4 0.29 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs56389811 HDAC7 0.29 Intronic
rs8055912 CDH1 0.28 Intronic
rs8056338 CDH1 0.28 Intronic
rs34574947 HDAC9 0.28 Intronic
rs197152 KDM4B 0.28 Intronic
rs368328 HDAC5 0.27 Intronic
rs10998288 TET1 0.27 Intronic
rs12449696 ACACA 0.26 Intonic
rs6511611 DNMT1 0.26 Intronic
rs2092563 EP300 0.25 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs7250055 KDM4B 0.25 Intronic
rs10426930 KDM4B 0.25 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs12774282 TET1 0.25 Intronic
rs56185013 TET2 0.25 3’UTR
rs2647249 TET2 0.25 Intronic
rs6507940 ACAA2 0.24 Intronic
rs11869205 ALKBH5 0.24 Intronic
rs7699743 TET2 0.24 Intronic
rs130017 CREBBP 0.23 Intronic
rs2288940 DNMT1 0.23 Intronic/ CTCF/ Enhancer
rs1178102 HDAC9 0.23 Intronic
rs684214 NAGLU 0.23 Intronic
rs1178331 HDAC9 0.22 Intronic
rs6969316 HDAC9 0.22 Intronic
rs2731338 HDAC11 0.22 Enhancer
rs2647261 TET2 0.22 Intronic
rs9304383 ACAA2 0.21 Intronic
rs80052686 EZH2 0.21 Intronic/ Promoter
rs10415880 PRMT1 0.21 Intronic
rs390677 SLC33A1 0.21 Intronic
rs382534 SLC33A1 0.21 Intronic
rs112013645 SLC33A1 0.21 Intronic
rs59103188 ACAA2 0.2 Intronic
rs5758223 EP300 0.2 Intronic
rs11153476 HDAC2 0.2 Intronic
rs13247375 HDAC9 0.2 Intronic
rs7896910 JMJD1C 0.2 Intronic
rs72837033 JMJD1C 0.2 Intronic
rs4135054 TDG 0.2 Intronic
rs6533185 TET2 0.2 Intronic
rs12600694 ALKBH5 0.19 Intronic
rs2926337 MBD2 0.19 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs59022814 HDAC4 0.17 Intronic
rs6706275 HDAC4 0.15 Intronic
rs12223627 MTA2 0.15 Intronic/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs34386000 TET1 0.15 Intronic
rs76714272 ACACB 0.14 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs66487118 DNMT1 0.14 Intronic
rs33938520 KDM4B 0.14 Intronic
rs34009962 KDM4B 0.14 Intronic
rs75792932 KDM4B 0.13 Intronic
rs10420726 KDM4B 0.13 Intronic
rs12965923 ACAA2 0.12 Intronic
rs73015138 DNMT1 0.12 Intronic/ Enhancer
rs28550823 GRIN2A 0.12 Intronic
rs17140133 HDAC9 0.12 Intronic
rs60186830 KDM2B 0.12 Intronic
rs8110642 KDM4B 0.12 Intronic
rs35098345 TET2 0.12 Intronic
rs12926704 GRIN2A 0.11 Intronic
rs6900394 HDAC2 0.11 Intronic
rs75888251 JMJD1C 0.11 Intronic
rs116438504 JMJD1C 0.11 Intronic
rs76698003 KDM2B 0.11 Intronic
rs183716438 ACAA2 0.1 Intronic
rs11984041 HDAC9 0.1 Intronic
rs6958814 HDAC9 0.1 Intronic
rs11657063 KDM6B 0.1 EMAR
rs35570603 TET1 0.1 Intronic
rs58644382 HDAC4 0.09 Enhancer
rs73107993 HDAC7 0.09 Intronic/ CTCF
rs11168251 HDAC7 0.09 Intronic
rs12226402 SIRT3 0.09 3’UTR/ EMAR/ Enhancer
rs113161209 EZH2 0.08 Intronic
rs7959510 HDAC7 0.08 Intronic
rs73107980 HDAC7 0.08 Intronic
rs2675228 HDAC11 0.08 Intronic
rs2675231 HDAC11 0.08 Intronic
rs17035323 TET2 0.08 Intronic
rs59050225 JMJD1C 0.07 Intronic
rs79109558 KDM4C 0.06 Intronic
rs11168254 HDAC7 0.05 Promoter
rs41274064 JMJD1C 0.05 Missense/ inframeshift
rs111690247 KDM2B 0.05 Intronic
rs4986782 NAT1 0.05 Missense
MAF and EMAR refer to Minor Allele Frequency and Epigenetically Modified Accessible Region, respectively.
Disclaimer/Publisher’s Note: The statements, opinions and data contained in all publications are solely those of the individual author(s) and contributor(s) and not of MDPI and/or the editor(s). MDPI and/or the editor(s) disclaim responsibility for any injury to people or property resulting from any ideas, methods, instructions or products referred to in the content.
Copyright: This open access article is published under a Creative Commons CC BY 4.0 license, which permit the free download, distribution, and reuse, provided that the author and preprint are cited in any reuse.
Prerpints.org logo

Preprints.org is a free preprint server supported by MDPI in Basel, Switzerland.

Subscribe

Disclaimer

Terms of Use

Privacy Policy

Privacy Settings

© 2025 MDPI (Basel, Switzerland) unless otherwise stated