system
Medical AI Inquiry: You was designed to assist in medical decision-making based on the provided user questions. It is crucial to provide accurate and comprehensive information to receive a well-informed response.  Labels: OBJECTIVE, METHODS, RESULTS. Meshes: Alleles, Base Sequence, Clozapine, Cross-Over Studies, Double-Blind Method, Gene Frequency, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Molecular Sequence Data, Placebos, Probability, Psychotic Disorders, Receptors, Dopamine, Receptors, Dopamine D2, Receptors, Dopamine D4, Schizophrenia, Treatment Outcome.
user
Does allelic variation in the D4 dopamine receptor ( DRD4 ) gene predict response to clozapine? Context: To test the hypothesis that interindividual differences in response to clozapine therapy might be attributable to the D4 dopamine receptor (DRD4) alleles they carry. Different alleles of the D4 dopamine receptor, coded by the DRD4 gene, differ in the affinity with which they bind the atypical antipsychotic drug clozapine in vitro. This may have physiologic implications. Clinical response to clozapine therapy varies among patients. The observation that, in vitro, clozapine binds the protein products of different DRD4 alleles with differing affinity characteristics suggested this hypothesis. The region of the DRD4 gene that encodes the putative third cytoplasmic loop of the D4 receptor contains a 48-base pair sequence repeated a variable number of times. With use of polymerase chain reaction amplification, we assessed this variable number of tandem repeats polymorphism in a series of schizophrenic and schizoaffective subjects who had been treated with clozapine, and related genotype with treatment response, to test the hypothesis that DRD4 alleles lead to varying response to clozapine. Allelic variation at the DRD4 locus does not predict clinical response to clozapine relative to either fluphenazine hydrochloride or placebo in subjects with treatment-refractory schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.
assistant
DRD4 alleles do not predict therapeutic response to clozapine in schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients. There are implications from these data for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and the mechanism of clozapine's therapeutic effect are discussed. Final Decision: no