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Gene variants may predict treatment response to antipsychotic medications; predictive power differs between blacks and whites
A genetic analysis has found that variants of a particular gene might be able to predict how some schizophrenia patients will respond to antipsychotic medications, but the predictive power differs between people of self-reported African and European ancestry.
Dec. 28, 2007
Gene variants may predict treatment response to antipsychotic medications; predictive power differs between blacks and whites
A genetic analysis has found that variants of a particular gene might be able to predict how some schizophrenia patients will respond to antipsychotic medications, but the predictive power differs between people of self-reported African and European ancestry.
“We know that response to antipsychotic medicines varies substantially. These analyses help to explain why and will help us pursue the important goal of individualized treatment,” said Dr. Scott Stroup, a co-author of the study and professor of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. Dr. Patrick Sullivan, a UNC professor of genetics, and Tara Skelly, a UNC laboratory technician, are also study co-authors. Dr. Daniel B. Campbell of Vanderbilt University is lead author.
The study, published in the Jan. 1, 2008 issue of the journal Biological Psychiatry, is based on an analysis of data and DNA samples collected from 678 patients who participated in an earlier, UNC-led study called the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials of Intervention Effectiveness, or CATIE. The researchers in the newer study found that variants of the gene encoding for the regulator of G-protein signaling 4, called RGS4, may predict how people with specific disease phenotypes would respond to widely used antipsychotic medications. RGS4 is a protein that regulates the functional consequences of activating neurotransmitter receptors.
Of the 678 patients, 198 or 29 percent reported their ancestry as being from “Africa only” while 397 or 59 percent reported “Europe only” ancestry and 83 or 12 percent reported “other” ancestry. By applying genetic analysis methods to the data from these patients, the researchers found several treatment responses in the African ancestry group that were not seen in the European ancestry group. For example, patients of African ancestry with a particular RGS4 variant continued on the drug perphenazine significantly longer than those on quetiapine or ziprasidone. These different responses were not found in the European ancestry group.
These results are exploratory and will require replication in future studies. They also emphasize the importance of including multiple ethnic groups in study design and collecting substantially larger samples of under-represented ethnic groups, the researchers concluded.
Biological Psychiatry Web site: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00063223
Media contact: Tom Hughes, (919) 966-6047 or tahughes@unch.unc.edu
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