Association between rs1344706 of ZNF804A and schizophrenia: a meta-analysis

Schizophrenia is one of the most serious mental diseases found in humans. Previous studies indicated that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1344706 in the gene ZNF804A encoding zinc finger protein 804A was associated with schizophrenia in Caucasian population but not in Chinese Han population. However, current results are conflicting in Asian population. In the present study, a meta-analysis was performed to revisit the association between rs1344706 and the risk of schizophrenia in Asian, Caucasian and other populations. Electronic search of PubMed database identified 25 case-control studies with available genotype frequencies of rs1344706 for the meta-analysis, involving a total of 15,788 cases and 22,654 controls. A pooled odds ratio (OR) with 95% confidence interval (CI) was used to assess the association. The current meta-analysis showed an association between rs1344706 and schizophrenia in Caucasian populations (P=0.028, OR=1.138, 95% CI: 1.014-1.278; P=0.004 for heterogeneity) and Asian populations (P=0.008, OR=1.092, 95% CI: 1.023-1.165; P=0.001 for heterogeneity), but not in other populations (P=0.286, OR=1.209, 95% CI: 0.853-1.714, P=0.120 for heterogeneity). Egger's test (P>0.05) and Begg's test (P>0.05) are both suggestive of the lack of publication bias for the included studies. Thus, the absence of association in other populations suggests a genetic heterogeneity in the susceptibility of schizophrenia and demonstrates the difficulties in replicating genome-wide association study findings regarding schizophrenia across different ethnic populations. To validate the association between rs1344706 and schizophrenia, further studies with larger participant populations worldwide are needed.