Association of telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number with risperidone treatment response in first-episode antipsychotic-naïve schizophrenia

Accumulating evidence indicates a putative association of telomere length and mitochondrial function with antipsychotics response in schizophrenia (SCZ). However, pharmacological findings were limited and no previous work has assessed this in a prospective longitudinal study. This study assessed telomere length and mitochondrial DNA copy number in first-episode antipsychotic-naïve SCZ patients with 8-week risperidone treatment to evaluate the association between these biomarkers and clinical treatment response. We recruited 137 first-episode antipsychotic-naive SCZ patients (and 144 controls) at baseline and 89 patients completed the 8-week follow-up. Patients, completed follow-up, were divided into Responders (N = 46) and Non-Responders (N = 43) according to the percentage of symptoms improvement. Linear regression analyses show that SCZ patients had significantly lower mtDNA copy number (β = −0.108, p = 0.002), and no alteration of telomere length when compared with healthy controls. In addition, compared with Non-Responders, Responders had significantly lower mtDNA copy number (β = −0.178, p = 0.001), and longer telomere length (β = 0.111, p = 0.071) before the 8-week treatment. After treatment, Responders persisted lower mtDNA copy number comparing with No-Responders (partial η(2) = 0.125, p = 0.001). These findings suggest that telomere length and mtDNA copy number may hold the potential to serve as predictors of antipsychotic response of SCZ patients.