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Several lines of evidence suggest that alterations in circadian rhythms might be associated with the pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BP). A recent study reported that SIRT1 is a molecule that plays an important role in the circadian clock system. Therefore, to evaluate the association among the SIRT1 gene, schizophrenia and BP, we conducted a case-control study of Japanese population samples (1158 schizophrenia patients, 1008 BP patients and 2127 controls) with four tagging SNPs (rs12778366, rs2273773, rs4746720 and rs10997875) in the SIRT1 gene. Marker-trait association analysis was used to evaluate the allele and the genotype association with the χ(2) test, and haplotype association analysis was evaluated with a likelihood ratio test. We showed an association between rs4746720 in the SIRT1 gene and schizophrenia in the allele and the genotype analysis. However, the significance of these associations did not survive after Bonferroni's correction for multiple testing. On the other hand, the SIRT1 gene was associated with Japanese schizophrenia in a haplotype-wise analysis (global P(all markers) = 4.89 × 10(-15)). Also, four tagging SNPs in the SIRT1 gene were not associated with BP. In conclusion, the SIRT1 gene may play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia in the Japanese population., (© 2010 The Authors. Genes, Brain and Behavior © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and International Behavioural and Neural Genetics Society.)

Several investigations have reported associations between serotonin 1A (5-HT1A) receptor and major psychiatric disorders, such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BP), making the 5-HT1A receptor gene (HTR1A) a good candidate gene for the pathophysiology of schizophrenia and BP. To evaluate the association between HTR1A and schizophrenia and BP, we conducted a case-control study of Japanese population samples with two single- nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), including rs6295 (C-1019G) in HTR1A. In addition, we conducted a meta-analysis of rs6295, which has been examined in other studies. Using one functional single- nucleotide polymorphism (SNP; rs6295) and one tagging SNP (rs878567), we conducted a genetic association analysis of case-control samples (857 schizophrenic patients, 1028 BP patients and 1810 controls) in the Japanese population. Two association studies for schizophrenia and three association studies for BP, including this study, met our criteria for the meta-analysis of rs6295. We found an association between HTR1A and Japanese BP in a haplotype-wise analysis, the significance of which remained after Bonferroni correction. In addition, we detected an association between rs6295 and BP in the meta-analysis (fixed model: P(Z)=0.000400). However, we did not detect an association between HTR1A and schizophrenia in the allele/genotype-wise, haplotype-wise or meta-analysis. HTR1A may play an important role in the pathophysiology of BP, but not schizophrenia in the Japanese population. In the meta-analysis, rs6295 in HTR1A was associated with BP patients., (Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Recent progress in genotyping technology and the development of public databases has enabled large-scale genome-wide association tests with diseases. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study (GWAS) of bipolar disorder (BD) in Japanese cohorts. First we used Affymetrix 100K GeneChip arrays in the analysis of 107 cases with bipolar I disorder and 107 controls, and selected markers that were nominally significant (P < 0.01) in at least one of the three models (1,577 markers in total). In the follow-up stage, we analyzed these markers using an Illumina platform (1,526 markers; 51 markers were not designable for the platform) and an independent sample set, which consisted of 395 cases (bipolar I + II) and 409 controls. We also assessed the population stratification of current samples using principal components analysis. After the two-stage analysis, 89 markers remained nominally significant (allelic P < 0.05) with the same allele being consistently over-represented in both the first and the follow-up stages. However, none of these were significant after correction for multiple-testing by false discovery rates. Sample stratification was virtually negligible. Collectively, this is the first GWAS of BD in the Japanese population. But given the small sample size and the limited genomic coverage, these results should be taken as preliminary., (2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.)

Because several investigations, including genetic studies, have reported associations between serotonin (5-HT) 2A receptor gene and mood disorders, 5-HT 2A receptor gene (HTR2A) is a good candidate gene for the pathophysiology of mood disorders such as major depressive disorder (MDD) and bipolar disorder (BP). Using two functional SNPs (T102C and -A1438G) and two SNPs (rs7997012 and rs1928040) in HTR2A, which reported an association with therapeutic response to the SSRI, we conducted a genetic association analysis of case-control samples (325 MDD patients, 155 BP patients and 802 controls) in the Japanese population. We did not detect significant an association of HTR2A with MDD and BP in allele/genotype-wise or haplotype-wise analysis. In this study, we could detect no evidence of genetic association between 4 markers near HTR2A and mood disorders in the Japanese population, but sample sizes, especially BP, were probably too small to allow a meaningful test.

Serotonin transporter gene (SLC6A4) is one of the most promising candidate genes for psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia (SCZ) and bipolar disorder (BP). Two functional polymorphisms, 5HTTLPR and 5HTTVNTR, have been a focus for genetic association analyses; however, no conclusive results have been obtained. We conducted, 1) a mutation search of SLC6A4, 2) LD mapping to select 'tagging' markers (10 SNPs and 5HTTVNTR, while 5HTTLPR was treated as an independent marker because of its allelic form), and 3) association analysis of these 'tagging' markers and independent markers (5HTTLPR and Asn605Lys) with SCZ and BP in Japanese patients. In this mutation search, a nonsynonymous SNP, Asn605Lys, was detected. No associations of 'tagging' markers and independent markers with such conditions were found. These results indicate that SLC6A4 might not play a major role in SCZ and BP in Japanese patients, a finding that agrees with both the common disease-common variant hypothesis and common disease-rare variant hypothesis.

Two research groups have recently reported a significant association between schizophrenia and genetic variants of Frizzled-3 (FZD3) gene. We examined a possible association in a Japanese sample of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, unipolar depression and controls with four single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), tested in previous reports. We failed to find significant association in the four SNPs or haplotype analysis. The FZD3 gene might not play a role in conferring susceptibility to major psychosis in our sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]