What does this gene do?
Coffee is the most popular drink worldwide, around 2 billions cups consumed daily. In the UK 95 million cups are consumed daily. In twin studies it revealed that genes play a role individual variability to consume coffee and the direct effects of caffeine.
Caffeine at low doses, give rise to alertness, mild euphoria and enhanced cognitive performance. If taken at higher doses can result in anxiety, nausea and trembling.
CYP1A2 is the gene that metabolises about 95% of caffeine. The ability for us to clear caffeine can vary and is dependent on the enzyme activity as a results of the CYP1A2 gene. The range of variability between individuals can be up to 40-fold. CYP1A2 leads to decreased ability to induce the enzyme needed to metabolise caffeine and results in its impaired metabolism.
According to the CYP1A2 variant, you either a “slow” caffeine metaboliser or a “fast” metaboliser of caffeine. The same amount of caffeine will therefore tend to have a more stimulating effect on CYP1A2 slow metabolisers than on CYP1A2 fast metabolisers.
If your result has an AA genotype, you rapidly metabolise caffeine, you’re therefore known as a “fast” metaboliser of caffeine. Consuming one cup of coffee a day as a fast metaboliser was shown to reduce risk of a heart attack compared to not consuming any coffee. You can use caffeine to improve your sports performance, you’ll get a greater and faster effect after ingestion, so best to take it 30 minutes before your exercise session.
The AA genotype is found predominantly in European, 54% and Asian, 42% populations.
For the results AC or CC genotypes, you metabolise caffeine slowly, and are seen as a “slow” metaboliser of caffeine. When consuming 2 or more cups of coffee a day as a slow metaboliser of caffeine is associated with increases the risk of heart attacks, both fatal and non-fatal and high blood pressure. So it would be best to manage or avoid caffeine intake. If you’re looking to use caffeine to boost sports performance, the effect will be delayed and smaller than comparison to carriers of an A allele.
Other genes that work together; COMT and VDR genotypes