The ACE model encourages researchers to characterise patients from a number of equally important perspectives and, by doing so, add specificity to the treatment of mood disorders.
The markers were genotyped across EDN1 and ACE in a sample comprised of 382 Hungarian nuclear families ascertained through affected probands diagnosed with a mood disorders before the age of 15.
The angiotensin I-converting enzyme gene (ACE) has been repeatedly suggested as a major gene affecting affective disorders and their treatment, but the study results have been ambiguous so far.
The ACE gene, known to be associated with cardiovascular disorders, which in turn are accompanied with an increased susceptibility for depression, is therefore a promising candidate gene for affective disorders.
These results do not support the ACE gene having a major role in the etiology of either bipolar or unipolar affective disorders.Am.J. Med.Genet.(Neuropsychiatr.Genet.)96:733-735, 2000.
These results suggest that the ACE I/D polymorphism is one of the genetic factors for an interindividual variability of brain SP levels, and that the ACE polymorphism may contribute to the susceptibility to affective disorders.