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Social cognitive role of schizophrenia candidate gene GABRB2.

ABSTRACT: The occurrence of positive selection in schizophrenia-associated GABRB2 suggests a broader impact of the gene product on population fitness. The present study considered the possibility of cognition-related GABRB2 involvement by examining the association of GABRB2 with psychosis and altruism, respectively representing psychiatric and psychological facets of social cognition. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped for quantitative trait analyses and population-based association studies. Psychosis was measured by either the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) or antipsychotics dosage, and altruism was based on a self-report altruism scale. The minor alleles of SNPs rs6556547, rs1816071 and rs187269 in GABRB2 were correlated with high PANSS score for positive symptoms in a Han Chinese schizophrenic cohort, whereas those of rs1816071 and rs1816072 were associated with high antipsychotics dosage in a US Caucasian schizophrenic cohort. Moreover, strongly significant GABRB2-disease associations were found among schizophrenics with severe psychosis based on high PANSS positive score, but no significant association was observed for schizophrenics with only mild psychosis. Interestingly, in addition to association with psychosis in schizophrenics, rs187269 was also associated with altruism in healthy Han Chinese. Furthermore, parallel to correlation with severe psychosis, its minor allele was correlated with high altruism scores. These findings revealed that GABRB2 is associated with psychosis, the core symptom and an endophenotype of schizophrenia. Importantly, the association was found across the breadth of the psychiatric (psychosis) to psychological (altruism) spectrum of social cognition suggesting GABRB2 involvement in human cognition.

SUBMITTER: Tsang SY

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3634734 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Social cognitive role of schizophrenia candidate gene GABRB2.

Tsang Shui Ying SY Zhong Songfa S Mei Lingling L Chen Jianhuan J Ng Siu-Kin SK Pun Frank W FW Zhao Cunyou C Jing Bingyi B Chark Robin R Guo Jianhua J Tan Yunlong Y Li Lijun L Wang Chuanyue C Chew Soo Hong SH Xue Hong H

PloS one 20130424 4

The occurrence of positive selection in schizophrenia-associated GABRB2 suggests a broader impact of the gene product on population fitness. The present study considered the possibility of cognition-related GABRB2 involvement by examining the association of GABRB2 with psychosis and altruism, respectively representing psychiatric and psychological facets of social cognition. Four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped for quantitative trait analyses and population-based associatio ...[more]

PMID: 23638040

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Project description:BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia is a major disorder with complex genetic mechanisms. Earlier, population genetic studies revealed the occurrence of strong positive selection in the GABRB2 gene encoding the beta(2) subunit of GABA(A) receptors, within a segment of 3,551 bp harboring twenty-nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and containing schizophrenia-associated SNPs and haplotypes. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: In the present study, the possible occurrence of recombination in this 'S1-S29' segment was assessed. The occurrence of hotspot recombination was indicated by high resolution recombination rate estimation, haplotype diversity, abundance of rare haplotypes, recurrent mutations and torsos in haplotype networks, and experimental haplotyping of somatic and sperm DNA. The sub-segment distribution of relative recombination strength, measured by the ratio of haplotype diversity (H(d)) over mutation rate (theta), was indicative of a human specific Alu-Yi6 insertion serving as a central recombining sequence facilitating homologous recombination. Local anomalous DNA conformation attributable to the Alu-Yi6 element, as suggested by enhanced DNase I sensitivity and obstruction to DNA sequencing, could be a contributing factor of the increased sequence diversity. Linkage disequilibrium (LD) analysis yielded prominent low LD points that supported ongoing recombination. LD contrast revealed significant dissimilarity between control and schizophrenic cohorts. Among the large array of inferred haplotypes, H26 and H73 were identified to be protective, and H19 and H81 risk-conferring, toward the development of schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The co-occurrence of hotspot recombination and positive selection in the S1-S29 segment of GABRB2 has provided a plausible contribution to the molecular genetics mechanisms for schizophrenia. The present findings therefore suggest that genome regions characterized by the co-occurrence of positive selection and hotspot recombination, two interacting factors both affecting genetic diversity, merit close scrutiny with respect to the etiology of common complex disorders.

Project description:Schizophrenia is a chronic psychiatric disorder that affects about 1% of the population globally. A tremendous amount of effort has been expended in the past decade, including more than 2400 association studies, to identify genes influencing susceptibility to the disorder. However, few genes or markers have been reliably replicated. The wealth of this information calls for an integration of gene association data, evidence-based gene ranking, and follow-up replication in large sample. The objective of this study is to develop and evaluate evidence-based gene ranking methods and to examine the features of top-ranking candidate genes for schizophrenia.We proposed a gene-based approach for selecting and prioritizing candidate genes by combining odds ratios (ORs) of multiple markers in each association study and then combining ORs in multiple studies of a gene. We named it combination-combination OR method (CCOR). CCOR is similar to our recently published method, which first selects the largest OR of the markers in each study and then combines these ORs in multiple studies (i.e., selection-combination OR method, SCOR), but differs in selecting representative OR in each study. Features of top-ranking genes were examined by Gene Ontology terms and gene expression in tissues.Our evaluation suggested that the SCOR method overall outperforms the CCOR method. Using the SCOR, a list of 75 top-ranking genes was selected for schizophrenia candidate genes (SZGenes). We found that SZGenes had strong correlation with neuro-related functional terms and were highly expressed in brain-related tissues.The scientific landscape for schizophrenia genetics and other complex disease studies is expected to change dramatically in the next a few years, thus, the gene-based combined OR method is useful in candidate gene selection for follow-up association studies and in further artificial intelligence in medicine. This method for prioritization of candidate genes can be applied to other complex diseases such as depression, anxiety, nicotine dependence, alcohol dependence, and cardiovascular diseases.

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Social cognitive role of schizophrenia candidate gene GABRB2.

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Social cognitive role of schizophrenia candidate gene GABRB2.

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