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Contribution of allelic variations in transporters to the phenotype of drug response

Department of Pharmacology of Natural Products and Clinical Pharmacology, University of Ulm, Ulm, Germany.

Dirk Gründemann

Edgar Schömig

Department of Pharmacology, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany.

Pharmacogenomics seeks to explain the variability in drug response. Neurotransmitter transporters from the SLCA6 family are direct or indirect targets for psychotropic drugs, and their genetic variations may directly influence response to antidepressant or antipsychotic drugs. Furthermore, drug transporters located in natural barriers, such as the blood brain barrier, may influence response to psychoactive substrates.

In the 5'-upstream regulatory region of the neuronal serotonin transporter lays a 44-base pair insertion/deletion polymorphism resulting in a long and a short variant. Several studies have reported a better response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors in individuals carrying two long alleles, however, some studies report contradictory results. Moreover, several genetic variants are known in the human norepinephrine transporter gene, and though one study reports differences in antidepressant response due to the NET G1287A polymorphism, results should be replicated by others before conclusions can be drawn.

Dopamine transporters play an important role in psychotropic drug response, and a variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism in the 3'-untranslated region of the dopamine transporter gene has been studied in regards to possible correlation with antipsychotic drug response but without showing an association. P-glycoprotein has been shown to influence drug concentrations in CNS but so far, the studies on genetic polymorphisms did not show effects on the phenotype of response.

Thus, several studies have looked at the influence of genetic polymorphisms on psychotropic drug response gaining different results. Best evidence exists for the serotonin transporter polymorphism influencing the response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors but the effects are relatively small. So far, transporter genotypes are not yet eligible for individual prediction of drug response.

Key Words: transporter • neurotransmitter • pharmacogenetics • antidepressant • antipsychotic • response

Journal of Psychopharmacology, Vol. 20, No. 4 suppl, 27-32 (2006)
DOI: 10.1177/1359786806066043


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