Development of a high-throughput method for screening the dopamine D2 (DRD2) receptor gene polymorphisms based on the...

Area of Science:

• Genetics
• Neuroscience
• Pharmacogenomics

Background:

• The dopamine receptor D2 (DRD2) gene is implicated in mental disorders.
• Specific polymorphisms, *TaqIA and *C957T, are associated with these conditions and may affect drug response.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate efficient screening methods for DRD2 polymorphisms.
• To investigate the allele frequencies of *C957T and *TaqIA in healthy and mentally disordered populations.

Main Methods:

• Established screening protocols for *C957T and *TaqIA polymorphisms using the Roche LightCycler system.
• Compared the new method with the established PCR with restriction fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) technique.
• Conducted an allele frequency study on 98 healthy and 86 mentally disordered subjects.

Main Results:

• A successful protocol for high-throughput screening of *C957T and *TaqIA polymorphisms was developed.
• Allele frequencies in healthy individuals were 50% for *C957T and 18% for *TaqIA.
• Allele frequencies in the mentally disordered group were 54% for *C957T and 21% for *TaqIA.

Conclusions:

• The developed protocol is efficient for high-throughput screening of DRD2 polymorphisms.
• No significant differences in the prevalence of *C957T and *TaqIA polymorphisms were observed between healthy and mentally disordered groups.