Mutation screening of the glutamate cysteine ligase modifier (GCLM) gene in patients with schizophrenia.
BACKGROUND
Experimental evidences show that glutathione and its rate-limiting synthesizing enzyme, the glutamate-cysteine ligase (GCL), are involved in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Furthermore, genetic association has been previously reported between two single nucleotide polymorphisms lying in noncoding regions of glutamate cysteine ligase modifier (GCLM) gene, which specifies for the modifier subunit of GCL and schizophrenia.


OBJECTIVE
We wanted to investigate the presence of GCLM true functional mutations, likely in linkage disequilibrium with the previously identified single nucleotide polymorphism alleles, in the same set of cases that allowed the detection of the original association signal.


METHODS
We screened all the coding regions of GCLM and their intronic flanking vicinities in 353 patients with schizophrenia by direct DNA sequencing.


RESULTS
Ten sequence variations were identified, five of which were not previously described. None of these DNA changes was within the GCLM coding sequence and in-silico analysis failed to indicate functional impairment induced by these variations. Furthermore, screening of normal controls and downstream statistical analyses revealed no significant relationship of any of these DNA variants with schizophrenia.


CONCLUSIONS
It is unlikely that functional mutations in the GCLM gene could play a major role in genetic predisposition to schizophrenia and further studies will be required to assess its etiological function in the disease.
Butticaz
Christophe
C
Department of Psychiatry, Center for Psychiatric Neuroscience, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Werge
Thomas
T
Beckmann
Jacques S
JS
Cuénod
Michel
M
Do
Kim Q
KQ
Rivolta
Carlo
C
D000328:Adult; D004252:DNA Mutational Analysis; D003718:Denmark; D005260:Female; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D005820:Genetic Testing; D005721:Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase / Q000235:genetics*; D006239:Haplotypes; D006801:Humans; D015810:Linkage Disequilibrium / Q000235:genetics; D008297:Male; D009154:Mutation / Q000235:genetics*; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide / Q000235:genetics; D021122:Protein Subunits / Q000235:genetics; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics*
D021122:Protein Subunits; D005721:Glutamate-Cysteine Ligase