Association ofFKBP5genotype with depressive symptoms in patients with coronary heart disease: a prospective study

Depression and coronary heart disease (CHD) are prevalent and often co-occurring disorders. Both have been associated with a dysregulated stress system. As a central element of the stress system, theFKBP5gene has been shown to be associated with depression. In a prospective design, this study aims to investigate the association ofFKBP5with depressive symptoms in CHD patients.N = 268 hospitalized CHD patients were included. Depressive symptoms were measured using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS-D) at four time points (baseline, and after 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months). The functionalFKBP5single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1360780 was selected for genotyping. Linear regression models showed that a higher number ofFKBP5C alleles was associated with more depressive symptoms in CHD patients both at baseline (p = 0.015) and at 12-months follow-up (p = 0.025) after adjustment for confounders. Further analyses revealed that this effect was driven by an interaction ofFKBP5genotype with patients' prior CHD course. Specifically, only in patients with a prior myocardial infarction or coronary revascularization, more depressive symptoms were associated with a higher number of C alleles (baseline:p = 0.046; 1-month:p = 0.026; 6-months:p = 0.028). Moreover, a higher number of C alleles was significantly related to a greater risk for dyslipidemia (p = .016). Our results point to a relevance ofFKBP5in the association of the two stress-related diseases depression and CHD.