title: MicroRNA in schizophrenia: genetic and expression analysis of miR-130b (22q11).
abstract: MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small regulatory RNAs that control a level of expression of protein encoding genes. Their role in brain pathologies is unknown. We made a first attempt to carry out a genetic study coupled with gene expression analysis of microRNA in human neuropsychiatric pathology. Presumably, at least one third of known miRNA genes are expressed in the brain. Mutations disrupting MECP2 protein lead to abnormal development of the brain and resulting behavior. MiR-130b expressed in the brain and potentially targeting MECP2 is located in the susceptibility locus for schizophrenia (22q11). We performed a comparative analysis of the expression of miR-130b in 24 brain neocortex samples from schizophrenic and normal individuals. The stability and effective detection of mature microRNA in postmortem tissues using Real-time PCR have been shown. Screening for mutations has identified a population polymorphism in the 5 -upstream miR-130b gene region containing DNA elements for putative transcription factors. Genetic association analysis of 300 schizophrenia and 316 normal control individuals revealed no statistically significant association of any of the miR-130b allelic variants with schizophrenia. The data demonstrated feasibility and perspective of convergent genetic and expression analysis of human microRNA genes in testing their role in human diseases.
authors.affiliation: Research Center of Mental Health, Russian Academy Medical Sciences, Moscow 113152, Russia.
authors.forename: O A
authors.initials: OA
authors.lastname: Burmistrova
authors.forename: A Y
authors.initials: AY
authors.lastname: Goltsov
authors.forename: L I
authors.initials: LI
authors.lastname: Abramova
authors.forename: V G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Kaleda
authors.forename: V A
authors.initials: VA
authors.lastname: Orlova
authors.forename: E I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Rogaev
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001483:Base Sequence; D001921:Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D002892:Chromosomes, Human, Pair 22 / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D020869:Gene Expression Profiling; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D051783:Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2 / Q000235:genetics*; D035683:MicroRNAs / Q000235:genetics*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009154:Mutation; D019579:Neocortex / Q000378:metabolism; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C497392:MECP2 protein, human; D051783:Methyl-CpG-Binding Protein 2; D035683:MicroRNAs