Association of serotonin 2c receptor gene polymorphism with depression and quality of life indicators in patients before coronary artery bypass grafting

The aim was to study the association of the rs6318 polymorphism of the HTR2C gene with the level of depression and quality of life in patients undergoing coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).

Materials and methods. A total of 116 patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) (age 60 [57; 65] years) were examined before CABG. Depression was assessed in all patients in the preoperative period using the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). In addition, the quality of life was measured in all patients using the SF-36 questionnaire. Blood samples were collected for the subsequent polymerase chain reaction-based genotyping to detect the rs6318 polymorphism of the HTR2C gene. Statistical analysis was performed using the STATISTICA 10.0 software package (StatSoft Inc., USA). The value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant.

Results. No significant differences were found in the associations between different genotypes of the HTR2C gene and depression levels. However, certain trends have been established (p = 0.1). Thus, the pairwise comparison of different genotypes reported that carriers of the CC genotype had higher BDI scores (12 [8; 19]), whereas carriers of the CG genotype (p = 0.07) and GG genotype (p = 0.08) had lower BDI scores (3.5 [2; 5] and 8 [0; 25], respectively). The quality of life among carriers of the CC, CG and GG genotypes did not differ significantly. Nevertheless, the median values of almost all indicators (GH, PF, RE, VT) were lower in carriers of the CC genotype. Carriers of the CC genotype suffered more from pain limiting their daily activities than carriers of the GG genotype (p = 0.04). Homozygous C allele carriers demonstrated poorer mental health than heterozygous carriers (56 [40; 64] vs 82 [72; 92], p = 0.04).

Conclusions. Reliable associations of different genotypes of the rs6318 polymorphism of the HTR2C gene with the quality of life parameters have been found in patients with coronary artery disease.

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