title: Analysis of genetic deletions and duplications in the University College London bipolar disorder case control sample.
abstract: Genetic deletions and duplications known as copy number variants have been strongly implicated in genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and epilepsy. The overall rate of copy number variants in the University College London (UCL) bipolar disorder sample was found to be slightly lower than the rate in controls. This finding confirms the results from other studies that have also shown no increased rate of copy number variants in bipolar disorder. However, some rare duplications and deletions were observed only in bipolar disorder cases and not in controls, these included some that had previously been detected only in rare cases of bipolar disorder. We conclude that copy-number variant analysis shows no obvious sharing of the same genetic susceptibility between schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Copy number variants do not seem to have an important role in susceptibility to bipolar disorder, they may, however, still represent a rare cause of the disease, although the evidence for this is far from clear.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Psychiatry Laboratory, Windeyer Institute of Medical Sciences, Research Department of Mental Health Sciences, University College London, London, UK. a.mcquillin@ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: McQuillin
authors.forename: Nicholas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bass
authors.forename: Adebayo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Anjorin
authors.forename: Jacob
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lawrence
authors.forename: Radhika
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Kandaswamy
authors.forename: Greg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lydall
authors.forename: Jennifer
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Moran
authors.forename: Pamela
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Sklar
authors.forename: Shaun
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Purcell
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Gurling
mesh_terms: D001714:Bipolar Disorder / Q000235:genetics*; D056915:DNA Copy Number Variations; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D006801:Humans; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D012559:Schizophrenia / Q000235:genetics; D006113:United Kingdom