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Updated: May 18, 2026

An Improved Method to Isolate Mitochondrial Contact Sites
Published on: June 16, 2023
No association of catechol-O-methyltransferase polymorphisms with schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population
Fuquan Zhang1, Chenxing Liu, Yaguang Chen
1Institute of Mental Health, Peking University, Beijing, P.R. China. zfq@bjmu.edu.cn
Aims:
Genetics play a major role in the etiology of schizophrenia (SZ). Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the promising candidate genes for SZ. A nonsynonymous single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP), rs4680, causing a Valine (Val) to Methionine (Met) substitution, has been widely studied in relation to psychiatric phenotypes, including SZ, but with conflicting results. We conducted a two-stage study to examine the association of COMT polymorphisms with SZ in the Han Chinese population.
Results:
Association analysis of nine SNPs in 768 patients and 1348 controls failed to detect any positive markers or haplotypes. Then, we tested rs4680 in a validation sample of 963 patients and 992 controls, and no significant association was observed, but the cases significantly deviated from Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium (p=5.7e-4). There was no association of rs4680 with SZ in the combined sample (n=4071, p=0.110, odds ratio=1.08).
Conclusions:
Our results do not support the association of COMT with SZ in the Han Chinese population.
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