Population-based and family-based association studies of an (AC)n dinucleotide repeat in α-7 nicotinic receptor subunit gene and schizophrenia

Fan, Jin-Bo; Ma, Jie; Li, Xing-Wang; Zhang, Chang-Shun; Sun, Wei-Wei; He, Guang; Gu, Niu-Fan; Feng, Guo-Yin; St Clair, David; He, Lin

doi:10.1016/j.schres.2006.02.012

« Previous Next »Schizophrenia Research
Volume 84, Issue 2 , Pages 222-227, June 2006

Population-based and family-based association studies of an (AC)n dinucleotide repeat in α-7 nicotinic receptor subunit gene and schizophrenia

Jin-Bo Fan
- Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, China
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Jie Ma
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
- These authors contributed equally to this work.
Xing-Wang Li
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
Chang-Shun Zhang
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
Wei-Wei Sun
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
Guang He
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
Niu-Fan Gu
- Shanghai Institute of Mental Health, Shanghai, 200030, China
Guo-Yin Feng
- Shanghai Institute of Mental Health, Shanghai, 200030, China
David St Clair
- Department of Mental Health, University of Aberdeen, Medical School, Foresterhill, Aberdeen, AB25 2ZD, UK
Lin He
- Institute for Nutritional Sciences, Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 200031, China
- Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200030, China
- Corresponding author. Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Hua Shan Rd, Shanghai 200030, PR China. Tel./fax: +86 21 62822491.

Received 21 December 2005; received in revised form 3 February 2006; accepted 15 February 2006.

Abstract

The human α-7 neuronal nicotinic receptor subunit (CHRNA7) gene, located at chromosome 15q13.2, represents a strong candidate gene for schizophrenia. We have examined an (AC)n dinucleotide repeat in intron 2 of the CHRNA7 gene, which was previously shown to be strongly linked with schizophrenia, using both population-based and family-based association studies. In the population-based study, no significant differences between the genotype and allele frequency distributions in schizophrenia patients and control subjects were observed after correction for multiple testing, although a nominally significant association between the most common allele and schizophrenia was observed (P=0.023, uncorrected for multiple testing). In the family-based study, there is no significant over-transmission (Transmitted/Non-transmitted: 61/50) of the same allele in 160 family trios. Overall, our results do not support a major role for the (AC)n dinucleotide repeat in schizophrenia susceptibility in Han Chinese. Further large-scale genetic studies based on a set of single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that fully characterize the linkage disequilibrium patterns at the CHRNA7 gene are necessary to determine the relevance of this gene as a risk factor for schizophrenia susceptibility.