Genetic variants in combination with early partial improvement as a clinical utility predictor of treatment outcome in major depressive disorder: The result of two pooled RCTs

Pharmacogenetics may allow for a personalized treatment, but a combination with clinical variables may further enhance prediction. In particular, in the present paper, we investigated early partial improvement (EPI) defined as 20% or more improvement by rating scales 2weeks after treatment, in combination with selected gene variants as a predictor of treatment outcome in patients with major depressive disorder. Two randomized controlled trials with 168 Japanese depressed patients were used. A stepwise multiple linear regression model with HAM-D score change at week 6 as the dependent variable and genotypes, EPI, baseline HAM-D score, age and sex as independent variables was performed in paroxetine, fluvoxamine and milnacipran, respectively, to estimate the prediction of HAM-D change at week 6. In the paroxetine sample, only EPI (P<0.001) was significantly associated with HAM-D change (n=81, R 2 =0.25, P<0.001). In the fluvoxamine sample, 5-HTTLPR La/Lg, S (P=0.029), FGF2 rs1449683C/T (P=0.013) and EPI (P=0.003) were associated with HAM-D change (n=42, R 2 =0.43, P<0.001). In the milnacipran sample, HTR-1A-1019C/G (P=0.001), ADRA2A-1297C/G (P=0.028) and EPI (P<0.001) were associated with outcome (n=45, R 2 =0.71, P<0.001). EPI in combination with genetic variants could be a useful predictor of treatment outcome and could strengthen the practical use of pharmacogenetic data in clinical practice

5-HTTLPR rs25531A > G differentially influence paroxetine and fluvoxamine antidepressant efficacy: a randomized, controlled trial.

A functional polymorphism in the transcriptional control region upstream, the serotonin transporter (SLC6A) coding sequence (5-HTTLPR) has been consistently associated with antidepressant response. More recently, another functional single nucleotide polymorphism within l variant has been reported, and the l variant with an adenosine at single nucleotide polymorphism rs25531 (lA) has been reported to have higher activity compared with the long variant with a guanine (lG)1 and lG expression is nearly equal to the s allele. Therefore, in the present work, we aimed to compare the effects of paroxetine and fluvoxamine in our previously reported sample expanding the analysis to rs25531 variants in a larger sample. The subjects of this study were in part previously reported investigating 5-HTTLPR.2 The method and design of this clinical trial were described elsewhere.2 Briefly, a total of 100 Japanese patients affected by major depression were randomly assigned to either paroxetine or fluvoxamine in a 6-week study. Response was evaluated by the percentage of the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HAM-D) score change and by the rate of \u201cresponse\u201d defined as an at least 50% decrease after medication. The study was approved by the ethical committee of the Kansai Medical University and Osaka University. Written informed consent was obtained from each subject. Plasma levels of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) were determined after at least 2 weeks of stable dosage to evaluate compliance. Genomic DNA was isolated, and we detected lA and lG alleles by real-time polymerase chain reaction method following a previous study.1 Repeated-measures analysis of variance or analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) with baseline HAM-D scores were included in the model as covariant was performed. The low-expression s and lG alleles were grouped together as S' compared with the high-expression lA allele as L' following evidence from previous studies.1 For response rate, a logistic regression analysis was performed using response rate as the dependent variable and age, sex, dose, with or without sleep-induced drugs, HAM-D baseline, and the type of SSRIs as independent variables. Results were considered significant with an [alpha] level lower than 0.05. Eighty-one patients completed the 6-week study, whereas 19 patients withdrew during the course of the study. Genotype frequencies were s/s = 60.4%, s/lA = 22.2%, s/lG = 9.9%, lA/lA = 3.7%, lA/lG = 3.7%, and lG/lG = 0%. All were in Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium. Sociodemographic and clinical characteristics of the samples are shown in Supplemental Table 1, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JCP/A159. No significant differences were found for all sociodemographic and clinical characteristic factors between 2 SSRIs in each genotype group. The triallelic polymorphism was marginally associated with HAM-D score change at week 6 in the total sample (P = 0.04). Subsequent comparison of paroxetine and fluvoxamine in each genotype group showed that fluvoxamine-treated subjects were significantly less improved compared with paroxetine in S'/S' carriers on the HAM-D change over time (P = 0.0002), at week 2 (P = 0.016), at week 4 (P = 0.0004), and at week 6 (P = 0.001); mean HAM-D change of paroxetine and fluvoxamine at week 6 was 76.6% and 55.5%, respectively, whereas in L' allele carriers, no significant difference was found, and mean HAM-D change of both SSRIs was approximately 75% (Fig. 1). Response rate of subjects prescribed with paroxetine (week 4, 80.0%; week 6, 88.0%) was significantly higher compared with fluvoxamine (week 4, 43.8%; week 6, 62.5%) in S' allele homozygotes (week 4, P = 0.008; week 6, P = 0.038), whereas in L' allele carriers, response rate of paroxetine and fluvoxamine were, respectively, 78.6% and 100% at week 4 and 92.9% and 100% at week 6 without significant difference between the 2 agents (Supplemental Table 1, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/JCP/A159). When the sample was stratified by l and s variants only, therefore repeating our previously published analysis in this expanded sample not considering rs25531, a similar but less pronounced difference between 2 SSRIs was observed in s homozygotes only (repeated-measures ANCOVA, P = 0.013). However, at week 6, a different HAM-D change of paroxetine and fluvoxamine was observed in both variants (s: 73.7% and 58.9%; ANCOVA, P = 0.026; l: 80.4% and 62.4%; ANCOVA, P = 0.028, respectively) Supplemetal Figure 1, Supplemental Digital Content 2, http://links.lww.com/JCP/A160. Figure 1 Back to Top DISCUSSION The association of 5-HTTLPR with SSRI response is not always consistent, especially in Asian populations. Among other explanations, this heterogeneity could be explained by different types of SSRIs. In fact, we previously reported a different effect on paroxetine and fluvoxamine. In the present article, we observed that, taking into consideration rs25531 variants, the difference was even larger. The rs25531 is putatively located in the sixth repeat of the 5-HTTLPR, and the lG allele reduces SLC6A4 messenger RNA expression to levels nearly equivalent to those of the short allele,1 whereas the lA allele confers higher SLC6A4 expression. We observed that S' homozygotes (s and lG) benefit less from SSRI treatments compared with L' (lA) carriers. Interestingly, even for the same class of antidepressants, response was differently influenced by these variants in each compound. L' carriers had a better response than S' homozygotes only for fluvoxamine, whereas most of the patients with paroxetine had a good response regardless of genotype. When these 2 SSRIs were compared, stratified by only long and short variants of 5-HTTLPR without consideration of rs25531, the result was similar to a certain degree but not the same. That is, s/s carriers influenced less fluvoxamine outcome compared with when rs25531 was also considered, whereas both agents had a beneficial effect over time on l allele carriers, although with some difference at week 6. Therefore, a potential confounding effect of rs25531 was demonstrated. A possible reason lies in the pharmacodynamic profile. Paroxetine [Ki = 0.83 (0.06), mean (SE)] is a more potent serotonin reuptake inhibitor than fluvoxamine [Ki = 14 (1), mean (SE)] in the human brain.3 In addition, paroxetine has also a higher degree of affinity for norepinephrine transporter [Ki = 85 (5), mean (SE)] compared with fluvoxamine [Ki = 2950 (103), mean (SE)]. Thus, paroxetine could preserve the effectiveness regardless of genetic impact of SLC6A4, even in S' homozygotes. This is, to our best knowledge, the first open-label randomized controlled trial to compare SSRIs stratified by genetic influence of rs25531A > G on 5-HTTLPR. Two previous randomized controlled trials have demonstrated no significant differences in clinical response to treatment of depression between paroxetine and fluvoxamine in white populations,4,5 and there are no direct comparisons of paroxetine versus fluvoxamine in Asians. A much higher frequency of lA allele in whites compared with Japanese population could explain the different findings. Some previous studies investigated the association of SSRIs response with lA, lG, and s variants in white depressed patients. Our results were consistent with a previous study that tested its impact on paroxetine treatment showing no association.6 However, our results are in part opposite to a study using fluvoxamine that showed favorable response of lG compared with lA.7 This inconsistency could be due to low lG allele frequency and to the inclusion of bipolar disorder. There are possible limitations of the present study linked to the sample. The sample was already used in our previous articles, and results must therefore be interpreted with caution. In S'/S' carrier, we had a power of 0.80 to detect a large effect size of d = 0.76, which corresponded to a difference of approximately 16.8% HAM-D change between 2 SSRIs. Although in L' allele carriers, small sample size with insufficient power could lead type II error; however, the significant difference observed between 2 SSRIs in L allele carriers stratified by simple 5-HTTLPR not considering rs25531 could suggest considerable effect of rs25531 polymorphism. In conclusion, we expanded our previous study in terms of sample size and adding a further variant. This allowed us to evidence that rs25531 has an effect, particularly in fluvoxamine-treated subjects

The International SSRI Pharmacogenomics Consortium (ISPC): a genome-wide association study of antidepressant treatment response

Response to treatment with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) varies considerably between patients. The International SSRI Pharmacogenomics Consortium (ISPC) was formed with the primary goal of identifying genetic variation that may contribute to response to SSRI treatment of major depressive disorder. A genome-wide association study of 4-week treatment outcomes, measured using the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD-17), was performed using data from 865 subjects from seven sites. The primary outcomes were percent change in HRSD-17 score and response, defined as at least 50% reduction in HRSD-17. Data from two prior studies, the Pharmacogenomics Research Network Antidepressant Medication Pharmacogenomics Study (PGRN-AMPS) and the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) study, were used for replication, and a meta-analysis of the three studies was performed (N=2394). Although many top association signals in the ISPC analysis map to interesting candidate genes, none were significant at the genome-wide level and the associations were not replicated using PGRN-AMPS and STAR*D data. The top association result in the meta-analysis of response represents SNPs 5′ upstream of the neuregulin-1 gene, NRG1 (P = 1.20E - 06). NRG1 is involved in many aspects of brain development, including neuronal maturation and variations in this gene have been shown to be associated with increased risk for mental disorders, particularly schizophrenia. Replication and functional studies of these findings are warranted

Loss-of-function DNA sequence variant in the CLCNKA chloride channel implicates the cardio-renal axis in interindividual heart failure risk variation

Common heart failure has a strong undefined heritable component. Two recent independent cardiovascular SNP array studies identified a common SNP at 1p36 in intron 2 of the HSPB7 gene as being associated with heart failure. HSPB7 resequencing identified other risk alleles but no functional gene variants. Here, we further show no effect of the HSPB7 SNP on cardiac HSPB7 mRNA levels or splicing, suggesting that the SNP marks the position of a functional variant in another gene. Accordingly, we used massively parallel platforms to resequence all coding exons of the adjacent CLCNKA gene, which encodes the Ka renal chloride channel (ClC-Ka). Of 51 exonic CLCNKA variants identified, one SNP (rs10927887, encoding Arg83Gly) was common, in linkage disequilibrium with the heart failure risk SNP in HSPB7, and associated with heart failure in two independent Caucasian referral populations (n = 2,606 and 1,168; combined P = 2.25 × 10−6). Individual genotyping of rs10927887 in the two study populations and a third independent heart failure cohort (combined n = 5,489) revealed an additive allele effect on heart failure risk that is independent of age, sex, and prior hypertension (odds ratio = 1.27 per allele copy; P = 8.3 × 10−7). Functional characterization of recombinant wild-type Arg83 and variant Gly83 ClC-Ka chloride channel currents revealed ≈50% loss-of-function of the variant channel. These findings identify a common, functionally significant genetic risk factor for Caucasian heart failure. The variant CLCNKA risk allele, telegraphed by linked variants in the adjacent HSPB7 gene, uncovers a previously overlooked genetic mechanism affecting the cardio-renal axis