Moderation of antipsychotic-induced weight gain by energy balance gene variants in the RUPP autism network risperidone studies

Abstract

Second-generation antipsychotic exposure, in both children and adults, carries significant risk for excessive weight gain that varies widely across individuals. We queried common variation in key energy balance genes (FTO, MC4R, LEP, CNR1, FAAH) for their association with weight gain during the initial 8 weeks in the two NIMH Research Units on Pediatric Psychopharmacology Autism Network trials (N=225) of risperidone for treatment of irritability in children/adolescents aged 4-17 years with autism spectrum disorders. Variants in the cannabinoid receptor (CNR)-1 promoter (P=1.0 × 10(-6)), CNR1 (P=9.6 × 10(-5)) and the leptin (LEP) promoter (P=1.4 × 10(-4)) conferred robust-independent risks for weight gain. A model combining these three variants was highly significant (P=1.3 × 10(-9)) with a 0.85 effect size between lowest and highest risk groups. All results survived correction for multiple testing and were not dependent on dose, plasma level or ethnicity. We found no evidence for association with a reported functional variant in the endocannabinoid metabolic enzyme, fatty acid amide hydrolase, whereas body mass index-associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms in FTO and MC4R showed only trend associations. These data suggest a substantial genetic contribution of common variants in energy balance regulatory genes to individual antipsychotic-associated weight gain in children and adolescents, which supersedes findings from prior adult studies. The effects are robust enough to be detected after only 8 weeks and are more prominent in this largely treatment naive population. This study highlights compelling directions for further exploration of the pharmacogenetic basis of this concerning multifactorial adverse event.

Figure 1

Gene variants predict weight gain across 8 weeks of risperidone treatment. (a) A greater risk for weight gain is conferred by T-allele dosage at cannabinoid receptor (CNR1) rs806378 (P=1.0 × 10⁻⁶). (b) The G-allele of leptin (LEP) rs7799039 acts dominantly to increase risk for antipsychotic-induced weight gain (P=1.4 × 10⁻⁴), whereas AA homozygotes are relatively protected.

Figure 2

Amount of weight gain is moderated by risk allele load. A risk score (0–3) was assigned to each subject corresponding to the number of loci with risk alleles present for each significant marker (leptin rs7799039 and cannabinoid receptor 1 rs806378 and rs1049353). Risk allele dosage predicted amount of weight gain (P=1.29 × 10⁻⁹, Cohen's D effect size=0.85). Only one subject had no risk alleles and was therefore included in the 1-allele group.