Polymorphic drug metabolism in schizophrenic patients with tardive dyskinesia

Seizures and myoclonus associated with antidepressant treatment: assessment of potential risk factors, including CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 polymorphisms, and treatment with CYP2D6 inhibitors

All adverse drug reaction reports labelled seizures or myoclonus during treatment with antidepressants and stored in the Swedish national database for spontaneous reporting of adverse drug reactions were reviewed in order to evaluate possible risk factors. The reporting physicians were contacted and asked for complementary information, and blood samples for determination of the CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 genotypes were obtained from patients available. In total, 25 cases of seizures and 7 cases of myoclonus were studied. The drugs included were maprotiline (n=8), mianserin (n=7), fluvoxamine (n=6), amitriptyline (n=3), clomipramine (n=3), citalopram (n=2), paroxetine (n=2) and lofepramine (n=1). Previously suggested predisposing factors were identified in all but four cases (87%). None of the 11 patients genotyped were found to be poor metabolizers with respect to the enzymes CYP2D6 or CYP2C19. Thus, neither the CYP2D6 nor the CYP2C19 genotype were found to be associated with the occurrence of seizures/myoclonus during treatment with antidepressants. However, 15 patients (47%) were concomitantly treated with drugs with potential inhibitory effects on CYP2D6, such as neuroleptics and dextropropoxyphene, and the patients might thus have been converted from the extensive metabolizer to the poor metabolizer phenotype during this treatment. Concomitant treatment with drugs decreasing the seizure threshold and/or inhibiting the metabolism of antidepressants appeared to be an important risk factor for the occurrence of seizures/myoclonus.

Pharmacogenetics: a laboratory tool for optimizing therapeutic efficiency

Pharmacogenetics is the study of the linkage between an individual’s genotype and that individual’s ability to metabolize a foreign compound. Differences in metabolism of therapeutics can lead to severe toxicity or therapeutic failure by altering the relation between dose and blood concentration of the pharmacologically active drug. Phenotypes exhibiting poor and ultraextensive metabolism result from genetic variance (polymorphism) of enzymes involved in metabolism. Thus, in pharmacogenetic studies one applies genotyping of polymorphic alleles encoding drug-metabolizing enzymes to the identification of an individual’s drug metabolism phenotype. This knowledge, when applied to dosing or drug selection, can avoid adverse reactions or therapeutic failure and thus enhance therapeutic efficiency. More than 25 commonly prescribed medicines are metabolized by the cytochrome P-4502D6 (CYP2D6) isoenzyme, and polymorphism of the CYP2D6 gene affects the therapeutic management of up to 17% of individuals in some ethnic groups. In this review, we summarize and update information concerning drug-metabolizing genotypes with emphasis on CYP2D6 genotyping techniques that can be applied by the clinical laboratory for linking human genetics to therapeutic management.

Antipsychotic drug-induced movement disorders in schizophrenics in relation to CYP2D6 genotype

BACKGROUND

Approximately 5-10% of Caucasians (poor metabolisers) show impaired metabolism of at least 20 therapeutically important drugs, including a number of commonly used antipsychotic agents, because they lack the cytochrome p450 enzyme CYP2D6. The molecular basis of this defect is now well understood and simple genotyping tests using the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been developed.

METHOD

To determine whether poor metabolisers are more susceptible to acute dystonic reactions and chronic movement disorders associated with the administration of antipsychotic drugs, we determined CYP2D6 genotypes in a group of 76 schizophrenics using previously described methods involving PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.

RESULTS

There was no difference in genotype frequencies between the schizophrenics and a normal control population, suggesting that CYP2D6 genotype was not a factor in determining susceptibility to the disease. However, four of the five poor metabolisers compared with 44% of the remaining subjects were suffering from a movement disorder at the time of the study, although because of the small number of poor metabolisers in the group the difference was not statistically significant. Poor metabolisers were not more likely to suffer an acute dystonic reaction.

CONCLUSIONS

CYP2D6 genotype is not a determinant of susceptibility to acute dystonic reactions but may be a contributory factor in antipsychotic drug-induced movement disorders including tardive dyskinesia.

Influence of Cyp2D6 genetic polymorphism on ratios of steady-state serum concentration to dose of the neuroleptic zuclopenthixol

One hundred and nineteen psychiatric patients undergoing therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) of the neuroleptic zuclopenthixol were genotyped with regard to Cyp2D6. Twelve patients (10.1%) were of the poor metabolizer genotype. The extensive metabolizers comprised 58 patients receiving no potentially interacting drugs and 38 patients concomitantly treated with other drugs competing for metabolism by Cyp2D6. Information on the rest (11 patients) was missing. The median steady-state serum concentration-to-dose ratio (C/D) of the PM group (2.00 nmol/L/mg) was close to that of the EM group receiving potentially interacting drugs (1.80) and approximately 60% higher than that of the remaining EM group (1.25) (p < 0.01). When judging the clinical importance of this difference, the total group variability in C/D of nearly 10-fold should be kept in mind (0.5-4.2 nmol/L/mg). In terms of serum concentrations not corrected for dose, the three groups had about similar levels, with median values from 16 to 21 nmol/L. We consider that TDM adequately takes into account dose adjustments for both EM and PM subjects in the context of this neuroleptic.

Steady-state serum concentrations of the neuroleptic perphenazine in relation to CYP2D6 genetic polymorphism

Steady-state serum concentration to dose ratios of the neuroleptic agent perphenazine were related to CYP2D6 metabolizer status for 96 psychiatric inpatients: 88 extensive metabolizers and eight poor metabolizers. The median concentration per dose of the poor metabolizer group (0.195 nmol/L per milligram) was about twice the median (0.098 nmol/L per milligram) of the 56 extensive metabolizers without interacting medicine (p < 0.01). The rest of the extensive metabolizers (n = 32), who were comedicated with drugs that compete with perphenazine for metabolism by CYP2D6, had an intermediate median value of 0.140 nmol/L per milligram. The range of concentration/dose values for the total extensive metabolizer group extended from 0.025 to 0.688 nmol/L per milligram, that is, an almost thirtyfold variation. The concentration/dose range of the eight poor metabolizer subjects was 0.096 to 0.750 nmol/L per milligram. Serum levels not corrected for dose overlapped to a large degree among the groups, with a total range from 0.5 to 12 nmol/L. This study points toward a limited information value of CYP2D6 genotyping in the context of therapeutic drug monitoring of perphenazine.