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Association of polygenic score for major depression with response to lithium in patients with bipolar disorder.

Molecular psychiatry

Authors: Azmeraw T Amare, Klaus Oliver Schubert, Liping Hou, Scott R Clark, Sergi Papiol, Micah Cearns, Urs Heilbronner, Franziska Degenhardt, Fasil Tekola-Ayele, Yi-Hsiang Hsu, Tatyana Shekhtman, Mazda Adli, Nirmala Akula, Kazufumi Akiyama, Raffaella Ardau, Bárbara Arias, Jean-Michel Aubry, Lena Backlund, Abesh Kumar Bhattacharjee, Frank Bellivier, Antonio Benabarre, Susanne Bengesser, Joanna M Biernacka, Armin Birner, Clara Brichant-Petitjean, Pablo Cervantes, Hsi-Chung Chen, Caterina Chillotti, Sven Cichon, Cristiana Cruceanu, Piotr M Czerski, Nina Dalkner, Alexandre Dayer, Maria Del Zompo, J Raymond DePaulo, Bruno Étain, Stephane Jamain, Peter Falkai, Andreas J Forstner, Louise Frisen, Mark A Frye, Janice M Fullerton, Sébastien Gard, Julie S Garnham, Fernando S Goes, Maria Grigoroiu-Serbanescu, Paul Grof, Ryota Hashimoto, Joanna Hauser, Stefan Herms, Per Hoffmann, Andrea Hofmann, Esther Jiménez, Jean-Pierre Kahn, Layla Kassem, Po-Hsiu Kuo, Tadafumi Kato, John R Kelsoe, Sarah Kittel-Schneider, Sebastian Kliwicki, Barbara König, Ichiro Kusumi, Gonzalo Laje, Mikael Landén, Catharina Lavebratt, Marion Leboyer, Susan G Leckband, Alfonso Tortorella, Mirko Manchia, Lina Martinsson, Michael J McCarthy, Susan L McElroy, Francesc Colom, Marina Mitjans, Francis M Mondimore, Palmiero Monteleone, Caroline M Nievergelt, Markus M Nöthen, Tomas Novák, Claire O'Donovan, Norio Ozaki, Urban Ösby, Andrea Pfennig, James B Potash, Andreas Reif, Eva Reininghaus, Guy A Rouleau, Janusz K Rybakowski, Martin Schalling, Peter R Schofield, Barbara W Schweizer, Giovanni Severino, Paul D Shilling, Katzutaka Shimoda, Christian Simhandl, Claire M Slaney, Alessio Squassina, Thomas Stamm, Pavla Stopkova, Mario Maj, Gustavo Turecki, Eduard Vieta, Julia Veeh, Stephanie H Witt, Adam Wright, Peter P Zandi, Philip B Mitchell, Michael Bauer, Martin Alda, Marcella Rietschel, Francis J McMahon, Thomas G Schulze, Bernhard T Baune

Lithium is a first-line medication for bipolar disorder (BD), but only one in three patients respond optimally to the drug. Since evidence shows a strong clinical and genetic overlap between depression and bipolar disorder, we investigated whether a polygenic susceptibility to major depression is associated with response to lithium treatment in patients with BD. Weighted polygenic scores (PGSs) were computed for major depression (MD) at different GWAS p value thresholds using genetic data obtained from 2586 bipolar patients who received lithium treatment and took part in the Consortium on Lithium Genetics (ConLiGen) study. Summary statistics from genome-wide association studies in MD (135,458 cases and 344,901 controls) from the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) were used for PGS weighting. Response to lithium treatment was defined by continuous scores and categorical outcome (responders versus non-responders) using measurements on the Alda scale. Associations between PGSs of MD and lithium treatment response were assessed using a linear and binary logistic regression modeling for the continuous and categorical outcomes, respectively. The analysis was performed for the entire cohort, and for European and Asian sub-samples. The PGSs for MD were significantly associated with lithium treatment response in multi-ethnic, European or Asian populations, at various p value thresholds. Bipolar patients with a low polygenic load for MD were more likely to respond well to lithium, compared to those patients with high polygenic load [lowest vs highest PGS quartiles, multi-ethnic sample: OR = 1.54 (95% CI: 1.18-2.01) and European sample: OR = 1.75 (95% CI: 1.30-2.36)]. While our analysis in the Asian sample found equivalent effect size in the same direction: OR = 1.71 (95% CI: 0.61-4.90), this was not statistically significant. Using PGS decile comparison, we found a similar trend of association between a high genetic loading for MD and lower response to lithium. Our findings underscore the genetic contribution to lithium response in BD and support the emerging concept of a lithium-responsive biotype in BD.

© 2020. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.

PMID: 32203155

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