Impact of NEGR1 genetic variability on psychological traits of patients with eating disorders

Genetics variants in the NEGR1 gene, strongly expressed in the brain, have been reported to affect the neuronal control of food intake therefore inducing obesity. With the same rationale, we hypothesized that this genetic variability may be associated with psychological traits commonly displayed by eating disorder (ED) patients and/or with the risk for the disorder. We analyzed 21 tag-single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the coding sequence and adjacent regions of the NEGR1 gene. A total of 169 ED patients (106 with anorexia nervosa (AN) and 63 with bulimia nervosa (BN)) and 312 healthy subjects were genotyped. Personality traits and general psychopathological symptoms were assessed by the Eating Disorders Inventory Test-2 (EDI-2) and Symptom Checklist 90 Revised inventories. None of the SNPs or haplotypes analyzed were associated with a greater risk of ED or correlated with anthropometric parameters. However, in patients with BN, four SNPs (rs12740031, rs10789322, rs6659202 and rs591540) correlated with the scores in Drive for Thinness (DT), Ineffectiveness (I) and Interoceptive Awareness (IA) (Bonferroni-P