1Neurosci. Lett. 2008 Jul 440: 35-7
PMID18547720
TitleAssociation between interleukin-3 receptor alpha polymorphism and schizophrenia in the Chinese population.
Abstractschizophrenia has been observed to be associated with various abnormalities in cytokines and cytokine receptors. Three very recent reports showed the evidence that the IL3 gene, colony stimulating factor 2 receptor alpha (CSF2RA), beta (CSF2RB) and IL-3 receptor alpha (IL3RA), the IL-specific receptor subunits for CSF2 and IL3, respectively, are associated with schizophrenia. To examine the association of the IL3RA polymorphism (rs6603272) with schizophrenia in a Chinese population, 310 physically healthy patients with schizophrenia were compared with 330 age-, sex- matched normal controls. Statistically significant differences were observed in both allelic and genotypic frequencies of the rs6603272 polymorphism (Allele, chi2=6.24, d.f.=1, p=0.013, odds ratio (OR)=1.35, 95% CI 1.07-1.71; Genotype, chi2=6.85, d.f.=2, p=0.033). Our results indicate a small but significant contribution of the IL3RA polymorphism to susceptibility to schizophrenia, suggesting that the IL3 pathway may be involved in schizophrenia.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
2Mol. Psychiatry 2008 Oct 13: 930-8
PMID17667962
TitleAssociation study of CSF2RB with schizophrenia in Irish family and case - control samples.
AbstractColony stimulating factor 2 receptor, beta (CSF2RB) is the shared subunit of receptors for interleukin 3 (IL3), colony stimulating factor 2 (CSF2) and IL5, and is responsible for the initiation of signal transduction triggered by ligand binding. In our previous study, we showed the evidence that the IL3 gene is associated with schizophrenia and the associations observed are sex-specific and dependent on family history (FH). In this article, we studied 10 single-nucleotide polymorphisms in the CSF2RB gene in the Irish Study of High-Density schizophrenia Families (ISHDSF) and the Irish Case - Control Study of schizophrenia (ICCSS), and tested allele and haplotype associations with schizophrenia. Using the pedigree disequilibrium test, we found that two markers (rs11705394 and rs7285064) reached nominal significance. In sex-stratified analyses, for both the markers the association signals were mainly derived from male subjects. In the ICCSS sample, we found that several markers (rs2072707, rs2284031 and rs909486) showed sex-specific and FH-dependent associations with schizophrenia. In multimarker haplotype analyses, both ISHDSF and ICCSS samples showed globally significant associations in multiple linkage disequilibrium (LD) blocks sharing minimal LD. Since CSF2RB is essential for IL3 signaling, the findings that both IL3 and CSF2RB showed sex-specific and FH-dependent associations suggest that the IL3 pathway is involved in schizophrenia.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
3Schizophr Bull 2009 Nov 35: 1163-82
PMID18552348
TitleSchizophrenia susceptibility genes directly implicated in the life cycles of pathogens: cytomegalovirus, influenza, herpes simplex, rubella, and Toxoplasma gondii.
AbstractMany genes implicated in schizophrenia can be related to glutamatergic transmission and neuroplasticity, oligodendrocyte function, and other families clearly related to neurobiology and schizophrenia phenotypes. Others appear rather to be involved in the life cycles of the pathogens implicated in the disease. For example, aspartylglucosaminidase (AGA), PLA2, SIAT8B, GALNT7, or B3GAT1 metabolize chemical ligands to which the influenza virus, herpes simplex, cytomegalovirus (CMV), rubella, or Toxoplasma gondii bind. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGR/EGFR) is used by the CMV to gain entry to cells, and a CMV gene codes for an interleukin (IL-10) mimic that binds the host cognate receptor, IL10R. The fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR1) is used by herpes simplex. KPNA3 and RANBP5 control the nuclear import of the influenza virus. Disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) controls the microtubule network that is used by viruses as a route to the nucleus, while DTNBP1, MUTED, and BLOC1S3 regulate endosomal to lysosomal routing that is also important in viral traffic. Neuregulin 1 activates ERBB receptors releasing a factor, EBP1, known to inhibit the influenza virus transcriptase. Other viral or bacterial components bind to genes or proteins encoded by CALR, FEZ1, FYN, HSPA1B, IL2, HTR2A, KPNA3, MED12, MED15, MICB, NQO2, PAX6, PIK3C3, RANBP5, or TP53, while the cerebral infectivity of the herpes simplex virus is modified by Apolipoprotein E (APOE). Genes encoding for proteins related to the innate immune response, including cytokine related (CCR5, CSF2RA, CSF2RB, IL1B, IL1RN, IL2, IL3, IL3RA, IL4, IL10, IL10RA, IL18RAP, lymphotoxin-alpha, tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNF]), human leukocyte antigen (HLA) antigens (HLA-A10, HLA-B, HLA-DRB1), and genes involved in antigen processing (angiotensin-converting enzyme and tripeptidyl peptidase 2) are all concerned with defense against invading pathogens. Human microRNAs (Hsa-mir-198 and Hsa-mir-206) are predicted to bind to influenza, rubella, or poliovirus genes. Certain genes associated with schizophrenia, including those also concerned with neurophysiology, are intimately related to the life cycles of the pathogens implicated in the disease. Several genes may affect pathogen virulence, while the pathogens in turn may affect genes and processes relevant to the neurophysiology of schizophrenia. For such genes, the strength of association in genetic studies is likely to be conditioned by the presence of the pathogen, which varies in different populations at different times, a factor that may explain the heterogeneity that plagues such studies. This scenario also suggests that drugs or vaccines designed to eliminate the pathogens that so clearly interact with schizophrenia susceptibility genes could have a dramatic effect on the incidence of the disease.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
4Mol. Psychiatry 2009 Mar 14: 252-60
PMID19065143
TitleGene-wide analyses of genome-wide association data sets: evidence for multiple common risk alleles for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and for overlap in genetic risk.
AbstractGenome-wide association (GWAS) analyses have identified susceptibility loci for many diseases, but most risk for any complex disorder remains unattributed. There is therefore scope for complementary approaches to these data sets. Gene-wide approaches potentially offer additional insights. They might identify association to genes through multiple signals. Also, by providing support for genes rather than single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), they offer an additional opportunity to compare the results across data sets. We have undertaken gene-wide analysis of two GWAS data sets: schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. We performed two forms of analysis, one based on the smallest P-value per gene, the other on a truncated product of P method. For each data set and at a range of statistical thresholds, we observed significantly more SNPs within genes (P(min) for excess<0.001) showing evidence for association than expected whereas this was not true for extragenic SNPs (P(min) for excess>0.1). At a range of thresholds of significance, we also observed substantially more associated genes than expected (P(min) for excess in schizophrenia=1.8 x 10(-8), in bipolar=2.4 x 10(-6)). Moreover, an excess of genes showed evidence for association across disorders. Among those genes surpassing thresholds highly enriched for true association, we observed evidence for association to genes reported in other GWAS data sets (CACNA1C) or to closely related family members of those genes including CSF2RB, CACNA1B and DGKI. Our analyses show that association signals are enriched in and around genes, large numbers of genes contribute to both disorders and gene-wide analyses offer useful complementary approaches to more standard methods.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
5World J. Biol. Psychiatry 2011 Apr 12: 233-8
PMID21247258
TitleCommon SNPs in CSF2RB are associated with major depression and schizophrenia in the Chinese Han population.
AbstractColony stimulating factor 2 receptor ? (CSF2RB) encodes the protein which is the common ? chain of the high affinity receptor for IL-3, IL-5 and CSF. It locates in the linkage region 22q12.3 of both bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and is expressed in most cells.
We carried out a large scale case-control study to test the association between CSF2RB and three major mental disorders in the Chinese Han population. Seven single nucleotide polymorphisms were genotyped in 1140 bipolar affective disorder patients (including 645 type I bipolar affective disorder patients), 1140 schizophrenia patients, 1139 major depressive disorder patients and 1140 healthy controls.
Three SNPs were found to be associated with both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. Haplotype association analysis revealed one protective haplotype (P value = 0.014 for SCZ and 0.0004 for MDD) and one risk haplotype (P value = 0.006 for SCZ and 0.001 for MDD). Additional 52 SNPs were analyzed for population stratification, which demonstrated that our positive results were not caused by population stratification.
Our results support CSF2RB as a risk factor common to both schizophrenia and major depression in the Chinese Han population.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia
6J Clin Psychiatry 2011 Apr 72: 458-63
PMID20868635
TitleCandidate gene analysis identifies a polymorphism in HLA-DQB1 associated with clozapine-induced agranulocytosis.
AbstractClozapine is considered to be the most efficacious drug to treat schizophrenia, although it is underutilized, partially due to a side effect of agranulocytosis. This analysis of 74 candidate genes was designed to identify an association between sequence variants and clozapine-induced agranulocytosis (CIA).
Blood and medical history were collected for 33 CIA cases and 54 clozapine-treated controls enrolled between April 2002 and December 2003. Significant markers from 4 genes were then assessed in an independently collected case-control cohort (49 CIA cases, 78 controls).
Sequence variants in 5 genes were found to be associated with CIA in the first cohort: HLA-DQB1, HLA-C, DRD1, NTSR1, and CSF2RB. Sequence variants in HLA-DQB1 were also found to be associated with CIA in the second cohort. After refinement analyses of sequence variants in HLA-DQB1, a single SNP (single nucleotide polymorphism), 6672G>C, was found to be associated with risk for CIA; the odds of CIA are 16.9 times greater in patients who carry this marker compared to those who do not.
A sequence variant (6672G>C) in HLA-DQB1 is associated with increased risk for CIA. This marker identifies a subset of patients with an exceptionally high risk of CIA, 1,175% higher than the overall clozapine-treated population under the current blood-monitoring system. Assessing risk for CIA by testing for this and other genetic variants yet to be determined may be clinically useful when deciding whether to begin or continue treatment with clozapine.
SCZ Keywordsschizophrenia