Dopamine Transporter Polymorphisms and rIsperidone Response in CHinese Schizophrenia Patients: An Association Study

Abstract

Risperidone is a widely used atypical antipsychotic medication and there is currently considerable interest in individual differences in patient response to it. In this study, we investigated the pharmacogenetic correlates of SLC6A3 and response to risperidone treatment in 130 Chinese schizophrenia patients. We selected six polymorphisms, including two SNPs in the 5´-regulatory regions, two SNPs in intron 1, one SNP and a variable number tandem repeat in the 3´-flanking region of SLC6A3 for this study and analyzed the differences in the reduction of Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores among the subgroups with different genotypes and diplotypes after 8 weeks of risperidone treatment. The confounding effects of nongenetic factors were estimated and the baseline symptom score was included as a covariate for adjustment. We found no significant differences in response to treatment in terms of PANSS or subscores improvements among the subgroups according to different genotypes and diplotypes. In addition, we have found no significant differences between different diplotypic groups in the plasma levels of risperidone and 9-hydroxyrisperidone. Further studies on larger groups and on the effects of longer-term risperidone treatment are needed to confirm these results.

Keywords: :

• 9-hydroxyrisperidone
• antipsychotic drugs
• dopamine transporter
• polymorphism
• risperidone
• schizophrenia

Acknowledgements

We would sincerely thank all the subjects for their participation in this study and all the medical staff involved in specimen collecting.

Financial disclosure & writing assistance

The work was supported by grants from the Chinese Ministry of Education, the national 973 and 863 programs of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Science and Technology. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Ethical conduct of research

The authors state that they have obtained appropriate institutional review board approval or have followed the principles outlined in the Declaration of Helsinki for all human or animal experimental investigations. In addition, for investigations involving human subjects, informed consent has been obtained from the participants involved.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by grants from the Chinese Ministry of Education, the national 973 and 863 programs of China, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Shanghai Municipal Commission for Science and Technology. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.