title: No influence of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) polymorphisms on treatment response in a naturalistic sample of patients with major depression.
abstract: The role of the brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the pathophysiology of major depressive disorder (MDD) remains to be elucidated. Recent post hoc analyses indicated a potential association of three polymorphisms in the BDNF gene with worse treatment outcome in patients with the subtype of melancholic depression. We aimed at replicating these findings in a German naturalistic multicenter follow-up. Three polymorphisms in the BDNF gene (rs7103411, rs6265 (Val66Met) and rs7124442) were genotyped in 324 patients with MDD and 470 healthy controls. We applied univariate tests and logistic regression models stratifying for depression subtype and gender. The three polymorphisms were not associated with MDD as diagnosis. Further, no associations were found in univariate tests. With logistic regression, we only found a tendency towards an association of the rs6265 (Val66Met) polymorphism with overall response to treatment (response rates: GG (val/val) < GA (val/met) < AA (met/met); p = 0.0129) and some gender differences for the rs6265 (Val66Met) and rs7103411 polymorphisms. Treatment outcome stratified for subtypes of depression did not differ significantly between the investigated polymorphisms or using haplotype analyses. However, results showed a tendency towards significance. At this stage, we cannot support an influence of these three polymorphisms. Further studies in larger patient samples to increase sample sizes of subgroups are warranted.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Psychiatric Clinic, Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich, Nussbaumstrasse 7, 80336, Munich, Germany. richard.musil@med.uni-muenchen.de
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Musil
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zill
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Seemüller
authors.forename: Brigitta
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bondy
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Obermeier
authors.forename: Ilja
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Spellmann
authors.forename: Wolfram
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Bender
authors.forename: Mazda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Adli
authors.forename: Isabella
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Heuser
authors.forename: Joachim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Zeiler
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Gaebel
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Maier
authors.forename: Marcella
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rietschel
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rujescu
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Schennach
authors.forename: Hans-Jürgen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Möller
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Riedel
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000235:genetics*; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D056726:Genetic Association Studies; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010597:Pharmacogenetics; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor