title: Is there a relationship between Wolfram syndrome carrier status and suicide?
abstract: Wolfram syndrome (WFS) is a rare, autosomal recessive neurodegenerative disorder. An increased risk of psychiatric disorders and suicide has been reported for heterozygote carriers. In this study we investigated whether mutations in the WFS gene are associated with suicide in the general population. The gene for WFS (WFS1) has recently been mapped to chromosome 4p16.1, and its genomic structure has been characterized. We screened the entire WFS1 ORF in a panel of 100 completed suicides, 60 blood donors not known to have psychiatric illness, and 100 donors with a negative history of depression or suicidal behavior. We did not find evidence of an increased incidence of WFS carriers in the suicide panel and concluded that WFS1 carrier status is not a significant contributor to suicide in the general population. Screening of this highly polymorphic gene resulted in the detection of 33 variants, 13 of which cause amino acid changes. Seven of these changes have not been previously reported and six were unique to our suicide panel.
authors.affiliation: Department of Cytogenetics and Molecular Genetics, Women's and Children's Hospital, North Adelaide, Australia. jcrawfor@wch.bionomics.com.au
authors.forename: Joanna
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Crawford
authors.forename: Marta A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Zielinski
authors.forename: Laura J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Fisher
authors.forename: Grant R
authors.initials: GR
authors.lastname: Sutherland
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Goldney
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000483:Alleles; D004247:DNA / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D005787:Gene Frequency; D006579:Heterozygote; D006801:Humans; D008565:Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics; D008875:Middle Aged; D020125:Mutation, Missense; D017354:Point Mutation; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D018807:Polymorphism, Single-Stranded Conformational; D013405:Suicide; D014929:Wolfram Syndrome / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology
chemical_list: D008565:Membrane Proteins; C114987:wolframin protein; D004247:DNA