A Study in First-Episode Psychosis Patients: Does Angiotensin I-Converting Enzyme Activity Associated With Genotype Predict Symptom Severity Reductions After Treatment With Atypical Antipsychotic Risperidone?

Figures

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  Figure 1.. Flow chart of the study with the inclusion and exclusion criteria of samples and the follow-up assessment.

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  Figure 2.. Scatter plot for angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity measurements. ACE activity was measured in healthy controls (HC) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) participants before (FEP-B, antipsychotic-naïve individuals) and after treatment for 2 months with risperidone (FEP-2M). Despite the statistical difference between HC and FEP after treatment, no significant differences in the mean value for ACE activity were observed between the FEP-B and FEB-2M groups. One-way ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc comparison test, *P ≤ .05 and **P ≤ .01.

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  Figure 3.. Angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity levels and clinical symptoms improvement of first-episode psychosis (FEP) group participants. The statistically significant reduction of symptoms after 2 months of treatment with antipsychotics (FEP-2M) compared with baseline antipsychotic-naïve individuals (FEP-B), as evaluated by total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score, is indicated by the bar, while the levels of ACE activity are depicted by the continuous bold line. Paired Student’s t test analysis, with *P ≤ .05 for comparisons with FEP-B.

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  Figure 4.. Mean values for angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) activity for each genotype subgroup from the healthy controls (HC), first-episode psychosis (FEP) participants before (FEP-B, antipsychotic-naïve individuals) and after treatment for 2 months with risperidone (FEP-2M) groups. A prevalence of the DI genotype was observed in both groups (HCs and FEP), and a higher ACE activity level in FEP after the treatment (FEP-2M) was noticed only for the DD genotype subgroup. The II genotype subgroup for HCs presented the lowest ACE enzyme activity levels and it is statistically lower compared with the DI genotype; this lower activity in II genotype could not be observed in the FEP group, either at baseline (FEP-B) or after the treatment for 2 months (FEP-2M). One-way ANOVA, Tukey post-hoc comparison test, *P ≤ .05 and **P ≤ .01.

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  Figure 5.. Scatter plot for ACE activity measurements of first-episode psychosis (FEP) patients stratified by age. ACE activity was measured in healthy controls (HC), FEP before (FEP-B, antipsychotic-naïve individuals) and after treatment for 2 months (FEP-2M). The samples were separated based on their age into 3 subgroups of similar size. The significant differences between the FEP and HC groups are indicated by the asterisks (*). *P < .05 for 1-way ANOVA.