Association study of schizophrenia with polymorphisms at six candidate genes

Clinical studies have shown that there is a genetic contribution to the pat hogenesis of schizophrenia. The molecular mechanisms of effective antipsych otic drugs and recent advances in neural development suggest that several d opamine receptor, serotonin receptor and neurotrophic factor genes might be involved in the disorder. In this study, we assessed the associations betw een schizophrenia and polymorphisms in the D2 and D3 dopamine receptor (DRD 2, DRD3), the serotonin 2A receptor (5HTR2A), the brain-derived neurotrophi c factor (BDNF), the ciliary neurotrophic factor (CNTF) and the neurotrophi n-3 (NT-3) genes. Our results suggest that the polymorphisms at the DRD3, 5 HTR2A, CNTF and BDNF gene loci are unlikely to make our sample more genetic ally susceptible to schizophrenia. However, we found significant difference s in microsatellite allele frequencies between schizophrenic and control gr oups for DRD2 in the whole sample and for DRD2 and NT-3 only in women. Ther efore, clinical differences in the presentation of schizophrenia between ge nder might be related to genetic factors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. Al l rights reserved.