Angiotensin I converting enzyme gene polymorphisms and risk of psychiatric disorders

Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) as an important enzyme in the renin-angiotensin system facilitates biogenesis of the functionally active product angiotensin II from angiotensin I. ACE gene contains a number of functional polymorphisms which modulate activity of the encoded protein. In the current case–control study, we appraised the association between the rs4359 and rs1799752 polymorphisms and risk of bipolar disorder (type I and type II; BPDI and BPDII), schizophrenia (SCZ) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD). The rs4359 was associated with risk of OCD, BPDI and BPDII in co-dominant and dominant models. The rs1799752 was associated with all assessed psychiatric conditions in four inheritance models except for BPDII whose association was not significant in recessive model. The I allele of rs1799752 was associated with OCD (adjusted FDR q-Value = 4.04E-04), SCZ (adjusted FDR q-Value = 6.00E-06), BPDI (adjusted FDR q-Value = 8.40E-03) and BPDII (adjusted FDR q-Value = 6.00E-06). The effective T allele of rs4359 showed a significant association with disease risk for BPDII group. The estimated haplotypes of these polymorphisms have been distributed differently among patients and controls. Taken together, ACE polymorphisms can be regarded as risk factors for a variety of psychiatric disorders.