71 Although not previously examined in TD studies, a SNP in RGS2 (rs4606) has been associated with extrapyramidal symptoms in two studies.74,75 Although a third study was negative, this regulator of intracellular dopamine signaling merits additional research.76 Prolactin elevation While prolactin elevation has also not been

widely studied across most of the genes listed in Table I, there have been seven published studies examining DRD2 TaqlA.77-83 As displayed in Table II, these studies have yielded mixed results across Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical a variety of APDs. KPT-330 research buy Notably, the three positive studies all reported that the Al allele was associated with increased risk for hyperprolactinemia, and a fourth study demonstrated the same effect in females only. This is the opposite allele that Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical was associated with TD, which may reflect the fact that prolactin response is mediated via the tuberoinfundibular pathway (hypothalamus and pituitary).84 Table II. List of studies of the Taq1A polymorphism (rs1800497) from the ANKK1/DRD2 locus in association with antipsychotic drug-related Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical prolactin levels. Weight gain It has been suggested that increased 5-HT binding profiles may account for the increased liability to weight gain observed in the second-generation antipsychotics.85 A survey of the literature of the regulation of feeding behavior

points to a major role for 5-HT, with both animal and human investigations showing, in general, that increasing 5-HT results in decreased feeding, with the reverse also true.86

Pharmacologic agonists of 5-HT2C lead to decreased feeding in animals87 it is logical to speculate that 5-HT2C antagonists, including most secondgeneration antipsychotics, might Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical lead to increased food intake. Perhaps Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical the best evidence for a specific role of serotonin-related genetic factors in antipsychotic-induced weight gain is provided by studies of the promoter region polymorphism, -759 T/C (rs3813929), in the HTR2C gene (on the X chromosome). Reynolds and colleagues88 studied 123 adult drug-naïve Han Chinese SCZ patients treated primarily with risperidone or chlorpromazine. Subjects with the T allele at this locus gained significantly less weight than subjects with the C allele in short-term (6- and 10-week) treatment; none of the 27 subjects with the T allele met criteria for severe (>7%) weight gain after 6 weeks, as compared before with 28% of the 96 subjects without the T allele. Two studies89,90 also reported an association of the T allele to reduced weight gain in a small samples of clozapinetreated patients, although this effect was only significant in males in one of these. Ellingrod and colleagues91 reported that the T allele is associated with less weight gain in Caucasian patients treated with olanzapine, and Templeman et al92 reported the same for weight gain associated with a mixed group of antipsychotics in a small Spanish first-episode cohort.