67 Numerous studies have implicated
the ACE DD genotype with cardiovascular disorders, including myocardial infarction,68 hypertension, and left ventricular hypertrophy,69 and also affective disorders,70 but these associations were not consistent in all studies. A review of the literature revealed a moderate degree of increased Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical risk for myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease associated with the ACE DD genotype in most populations.71 Recently, the impact of the ACE DD genotype on myocardial infarction was reevaluated using the paradigm of gene-gene interaction between the ACE gene variants together with the C825T polymorphism in the Gβ3 subunit in patients with coronary artery disease with Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and without myocardial infarction. In the combined analysis of the ACE and Gβ3 polymorphisms, the highest relative risk (odds ratio [OR] 7.5) was found in Gβ3-TT/ACE-DD carriers, suggesting that the interaction between the Gβ3 825T and the ACE D alleles Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical increases the risk more than sevenfold and are thus a possible contributing factor for myocardial infarction.72 On the basis of our own previous results
regarding an association of the Gβ3 825T allele with affective disorders61 and a possible influence of the ID polymorphism of the ACE gene polymorphism on therapeutic outcome in affective disorders,73 we studied the interaction of both gene
variants in 201 patients with unipolar major depression and 161 ethnically Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical matched controls. Interestingly, in depressed patients, we observed a combined action of ACE and Gβ3 genotypes: ACE-ID and DD/Gβ3-TT carriers were more than four times more frequent in the depressed group than in the controls (crude OR=5.83; 95% confidence interval 1.99-17.08; P=0.0002).62 As our study was carried Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical out in depressed patients without serious cardiovascular impairment, we are currently unable to predict whether this combined action of the ACE ID/DD and Gβ3 TT genotype increases the risk for both disorders. Nevertheless, our study is the first report of the same allelic combination of two genes that increase the risk for myocardial infarction72 and the vulnerability for depressive disorder, and this could be one missing link for the interaction. Summary and conclusion With respect to the multiple interactions see more between brain and body, it is plausible that polymorphisms in genes coding for proteins that regulate or modulate these interactions have a tremendous influence on susceptibility, pathophysiology, or comorbidity of somatic and psychiatric disorders. Thus, variants in several candidate genes that have repeatedly been associated with psychiatric SAHA HDAC purchase disorders may also be successfully investigated in somatic disorders or vice versa.