| 1 | Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 2007 Mar 144B: 250-3 |
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| PMID | 17066476 |
| Title | Synergistic association of mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) genes with schizophrenia. |
| Abstract | Many studies suggest that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. We performed a case-control study using tag SNPs in the mitochondrial uncoupling protein genes, UCP2, UCP4, and BMCP1/UCP5, to investigate their association with schizophrenia. These neuronal UCPs are expressed in various brain tissues and may exert a neuroprotective effect against increased oxidative stress. We found modest associations between schizophrenia and the four tag SNPs, rs660339 (odds ratio (OR) = 1.330; P = 0.0043) and rs649446 (OR = 0.739; P = 0.0069) in UCP2, and rs10807344 (OR = 0.622; P = 0.0029) and rs2270450 (OR = 0.704; P = 0.0043) in UCP4, all of which were statistically significant even after correcting for multiple comparisons. Moreover, we found a statistically significant synergistic interaction between UCP2 and UCP4 by using the multifactor dimensionality reduction (MDR) method. The synergistic interaction was also confirmed by the logistic regression analysis, where the maximal OR was obtained when the risk alleles at rs660339 and rs10807344 were simultaneously homozygous. Individuals possessing homozygous risk alleles at these two loci have a 7.6-fold risk of developing schizophrenia compared with those of minimal OR. Our findings suggest that UCP2 and UCP4 have a modest but important involvement in the genetic etiology of schizophrenia. This is the first report of the association between schizophrenia and neuronal UCPs. |
| SCZ Keywords | schizophrenia |
| 2 | Neurosci. Lett. 2011 Nov 505: 47-51 |
| PMID | 22001364 |
| Title | Decreased mRNA expression of uncoupling protein 2, a mitochondrial proton transporter, in post-mortem prefrontal cortex from patients with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. |
| Abstract | Although the neurobiological basis of bipolar disorder (BD) remains unknown, mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress and oxidative cell damage have been identified in this disease. Uncoupling proteins (UCP) are proton carriers located in the inner membrane of the mitochondria involved in controlling the production of mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS). Therefore, in this study we wished to investigate the involvement of UCP in BD. We analyzed the RNA and protein levels of UCP2 in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of subjects with BD and schizophrenia (SCZ) and assessed the potential relationship between the antioxidant superoxide dismutase (SOD1 and SOD2) and UCP2 in the same region. Our results showed a downregulation of UCP2 mRNA levels in the DLPFC of subjects with BD and SCZ. There were no differences in UCP2 protein, SOD1 and SOD2 levels between patients and controls. Although more studies are necessary, our results suggest that UCP2 is not been used as a compensatory mechanism to oppose the higher levels of oxidative stress found in BD and SCZ. |
| SCZ Keywords | schizophrenia |
| 3 | Pharmacogenomics 2011 Feb 12: 185-93 |
| PMID | 21332312 |
| Title | Association of an UCP4 (SLC25A27) haplotype with ultra-resistant schizophrenia. |
| Abstract | Neuronal uncoupling proteins are involved in the regulation of reactive oxygen species production and intracellular calcium homeostasis, and thus, play a neuroprotective role. In order to explore the potential consequences of neuronal uncoupling proteins variants we examined their association in a sample of Caucasian patients suffering from schizophrenia and phenotyped them according to antipsychotic response. Using a case-control design, we compared the frequencies of 15 genetic variants spanning UCP2, UCP4 and UCP5 in 106 French Caucasian patients suffering from schizophrenia and 127 healthy controls. In addition, patients with schizophrenia who responded to antipsychotic treatment were compared with patients with ultra-resistant schizophrenia (URS). This latter population presented no clinical, social and/or occupational remission despite at least two periods of treatment with conventional or atypical antipsychotic drugs and also with clozapine. There were no differences in the distribution of the respective alleles between URS and responding patients. However, one haplotype spanning UCP4 was found to be significantly under-represented in URS patients. This relationship remained significant after multiple testing corrections. Although our sample is of limited size and not representative of schizophrenia as a whole, the association found between the URS group and the UCP4 haplotype is noteworthy as it may influence treatment outcome in schizophrenia. |
| SCZ Keywords | schizophrenia |