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Association Analysis for Neuronal Nitric Oxide Synthase Gene Polymorphism with Major Depression and Fluoxetine Response

Nitric oxide (NO) is produced from its precursor L-arginine by the enzyme NO synthase (NOS), which includes at least three distinct isoforms – neuronal (nNOS), endothelial, and inducible NOS. Recent studies have implicated NOS in the mechanism that underlies the therapeutic efficacy of antidepressant medication. In addition, major depressive disorder (MDD) patients were found to have significantly higher plasma nitrate concentrations than normal subjects, an index of NO production, in comparison to normal subjects. In a population-based association study, we tested the hypothesis that the nNOS C276T polymorphism confers susceptibility to MDD. We also examined the association between this polymorphism and therapeutic fluoxetine response in 114 MDD patients who underwent a 4-week fluoxetine treatment. The results demonstrate that the nNOS variants are found at similar frequencies in MDD patients and healthy control subjects. Further, we did not discover any genetic variants that influenced the fluoxetine response in MDD patients treated with fluoxetine. Our findings suggest that this nNOS C276T polymorphism does not play a major role in the susceptibility to, or fluoxetine response in, MDD. However, the association between other NOS variants and MDD or antidepressant response, including sexual dysfunction, may warrant further investigation.