SCN8A as a novel candidate gene associated with bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population.
BACKGROUND
Bipolar disorder (BPD) is a common, severe and recurrent psychiatric disorder. It has been suggested that BPD patients have a higher risk of suicide than patients with any other psychiatric illnesses. A recent study found that suicide attempt was associated with the SCN8A gene, which has been mapped close to one of the BPD susceptibility loci. Thus, SCN8A is likely to be a candidate gene for BPD.


METHODS
In this study, three SNPs (rs1601012, rs303810, rs60637) were analyzed in 506 bipolar patients and 507 controls of Han origin.


RESULTS
We found that two individual SNPs showed statistically significant differences between cases and controls in both allele and genotype distribution, but only rs303810 was still significant in allele distribution (p=0.0164) after correction. No obvious linkage disequilibrium or haplotypes were observed among these SNPs.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that SCN8A may be a potential susceptibility gene for bipolar disorder in the Han Chinese population.
Wang
Yang
Y
Bio-X Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, China.
Zhang
Jing
J
Li
Xingwang
X
Ji
Jue
J
Yang
Fengping
F
Wan
Chunling
C
Feng
Guoyin
G
Wan
Peng
P
He
Lin
L
He
Guang
G
D000328:Adult; D044466:Asian People / Q000235:genetics; D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D062557:NAV1.6 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics*; D015222:Sodium Channels / Q000235:genetics*; D055815:Young Adult
D062557:NAV1.6 Voltage-Gated Sodium Channel; D009419:Nerve Tissue Proteins; C100681:SCN8A protein, human; D015222:Sodium Channels