SCN8A as a novel candidate gene associated with bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population
Yang Wang1, Jing Zhang, Xingwang Li
1Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China.
Background:
Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common, severe and recurrent psychiatric disorder. It has been suggested that BPD patients have a higher risk of suicide than patients with any other psychiatric illnesses. A recent study found that suicide attempt was associated with the SCN8A gene, which has been mapped close to one of the BPD susceptibility loci. Thus, SCN8A is likely to be a candidate gene for BPD.
Methods:
In this study, three SNPs (rs1601012, rs303810, rs60637) were analyzed in 506 bipolar patients and 507 controls of Han origin.
Results:
We found that two individual SNPs showed statistically significant differences between cases and controls in both allele and genotype distribution, but only rs303810 was still significant in allele distribution (p=0.0164) after correction. No obvious linkage disequilibrium or haplotypes were observed among these SNPs.
Conclusion:
Our results indicate that SCN8A may be a potential susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population.
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