City Research Online

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Clozapine is an atypical antipsychotic primarily prescribed for treatment-resistant schizophrenia. We tested the specific effect of clozapine versus other drug treatments on whole-blood gene expression in a sample of patients with psychosis from the UK.

METHODS: A total of 186 baseline whole-blood samples from individuals receiving treatment for established psychosis were analysed for gene expression on Illumina HumanHT-12.v4 BeadChips. After standard quality-control procedures, 152 samples remained, including 55 from individuals receiving clozapine. In a within-case study design, weighted gene correlation network analysis was used to identify modules of coexpressed genes. The influence of mood stabilizers, lithium carbonate/lithium citrate and sodium valproate was studied to identify their possible roles as confounders.

RESULTS: Individuals receiving clozapine as their only antipsychotic (clozapine monotherapy) had a nominal association with one gene-expression module, whereas no significant change in gene expression was found for other drugs.

CONCLUSION: Overall, this study does not provide evidence that clozapine treatment induces medium to large different gene-expression patterns in human whole blood versus other antipsychotic treatments. This does not rule out the possibility of smaller effects as observed for other common antipsychotic treatments.

Publication Type:	Article
Publisher Keywords:	antipsychotics, blood, clozapine, gene-expression network, human, lithium, psychosis, schizophrenia, valproate, weighted gene correlation network analysis
Subjects:	R Medicine R Medicine > RC Internal medicine > RC0321 Neuroscience. Biological psychiatry. Neuropsychiatry
Departments:	School of Health & Psychological Sciences > Psychology

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