Common variants conferring risk of schizophrenia.
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| Abstract |
Schizophrenia is a complex disorder, caused by both genetic and environmental factors and their interactions. Research on pathogenesis has traditionally focused on neurotransmitter systems in the brain, particularly those involving dopamine. Schizophrenia has been considered a separate disease for over a century, but in the absence of clear biological markers, diagnosis has historically been based on signs and symptoms. A fundamental message emerging from genome-wide association studies of copy number variations (CNVs) associated with the disease is that its genetic basis does not necessarily conform to classical nosological disease boundaries. Certain CNVs confer not only high relative risk of schizophrenia but also of other psychiatric disorders. The structural variations associated with schizophrenia can involve several genes and the phenotypic syndromes, or the 'genomic disorders', have not yet been characterized. Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based genome-wide association studies with the potential to implicate individual genes in complex diseases may reveal underlying biological pathways. Here we combined SNP data from several large genome-wide scans and followed up the most significant association signals. We found significant association with several markers spanning the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region on chromosome 6p21.3-22.1, a marker located upstream of the neurogranin gene (NRGN) on 11q24.2 and a marker in intron four of transcription factor 4 (TCF4) on 18q21.2. Our findings implicating the MHC region are consistent with an immune component to schizophrenia risk, whereas the association with NRGN and TCF4 points to perturbation of pathways involved in brain development, memory and cognition.
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| Authors | Hreinn Stefansson, Roel A Ophoff, Stacy Steinberg, Ole A Andreassen, Sven Cichon, Dan Rujescu, Thomas Werge, Olli P H Pietiläinen, Ole Mors, Preben B Mortensen, Engilbert Sigurdsson, Omar Gustafsson, Mette Nyegaard, Annamari Tuulio-Henriksson, Andres Ingason, Thomas Hansen, Jaana Suvisaari, Jouko Lonnqvist, Tiina Paunio, Anders D Børglum, Annette Hartmann, Anders Fink-Jensen, Merete Nordentoft, David Hougaard, Bent Norgaard-Pedersen, Yvonne Böttcher, Jes Olesen, René Breuer, Hans-Jürgen Möller, Ina Giegling, Henrik B Rasmussen, Sally Timm, Manuel Mattheisen, István Bitter, János M Réthelyi, Brynja B Magnusdottir, Thordur Sigmundsson, Pall Olason, Gisli Masson, Jeffrey R Gulcher, Magnus Haraldsson, Ragnheidur Fossdal, Thorgeir E Thorgeirsson, Unnur Thorsteinsdottir, Mirella Ruggeri, Sarah Tosato, Barbara Franke, Eric Strengman, Lambertus A Kiemeney, Genetic Risk and Outcome in Psychosis (GROUP), Ingrid Melle, Srdjan Djurovic, Lilia Abramova, Vasily Kaleda, Julio Sanjuan, Rosa de Frutos, Elvira Bramon, Evangelos Vassos, Gillian Fraser, Ulrich Ettinger, Marco Picchioni, Nicholas Walker, Timi Toulopoulou, Anna C Need, Dongliang Ge, Joeng Lim Yoon, Kevin V Shianna, Nelson B Freimer, Rita M Cantor, Robin Murray, Augustine Kong, Vera Golimbet, Angel Carracedo, Celso Arango, Javier Costas, Erik G Jönsson, Lars Terenius, Ingrid Agartz, Hannes Petursson, Markus M Nöthen, Marcella Rietschel, Paul M Matthews, Pierandrea Muglia, Leena Peltonen, David St Clair, David B Goldstein, Kari Stefansson, David A Collier |
| Journal | Nature (Nature) Vol. 460 Issue 7256 Pg. 744-7 (Aug 06 2009) ISSN: 1476-4687 [Electronic] England |
| PMID | 19571808 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't) |
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