Association betweenANKK1(rs1800497) andLTA(rs909253) Genetic Variants and Risk of Schizophrenia

Abstract

Limited research has assessed associations between schizophrenia and genetic variants of the ankyrin repeat and kinase domain containing 1 (ANKK1) and lymphotoxin-alpha (LTA) genes among individuals of Middle Eastern ancestry. Here we present the first association study investigating theANKK1rs1800497 (T>C) andLTArs909253 (A>G) single-nucleotide polymorphisms in an Egyptian population. Among 120 patients with DSM-IV and PANSS (Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) assessments of schizophrenia and 100 healthy controls, we determined the genotypes for the polymorphisms using endonuclease digestion of amplified genomic DNA. Results confirmed previous findings from different ethnic populations, in that the rs1800497 and rs909253 polymorphisms were both associated with risk of schizophrenia. Differences between the genotypes of cases and controls were strongly significant (P= 0.0005 for rs1800497 andP= 0.001 for rs909253). The relative risk to schizophrenia was 1.2 (P= 0.01) for the C allele and 0.8 (P= 0.04) for the G allele. The CC, GG, and combined CC/AA genotypes were all more frequent in cases than in controls. These results support an association betweenANKK1andLTAgenetic markers and vulnerability to schizophrenia and show the potential influence of just one copy of the mutant C or G allele in the Egyptian population.