title: Psychosis-proneness correlates with expression levels of dopaminergic genes.
abstract: Psychosis-proneness or schizotypy is a personality organisation mirroring individual risk for schizophrenia-development. Believed to be a fully dimensional construct sharing considerable geno- and phenotypal variance with clinical schizophrenia, it has become an increasingly promising tool for basic psychosis-research. Although many studies show genetic commonalities between schizotypy and schizophrenia, changes in regulation of gene expression have never been examined in schizotypy before. We therefore extracted RNA from the blood, a valid surrogate for brain tissue, of a large sample of 67 healthy male volunteers and correlated the activities of all genes relevant for dopaminergic neurotransmission with the positive schizotypy-scale of the O-LIFE. We found significant negative correlations regarding the expression of the genes COMT, MAOB, DRD4, DRD5 and FOS, indicating that increased schizotypy coincides with higher levels of dopaminergic dysregulation on the mRNA-level. Considering the advantages of this method, we suggest that it be applied more often in fundamental psychosis-research.
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany. Electronic address: phillip.grant@psychol.uni-giessen.de.
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Grant
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gabriel
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuepper
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Wielpuetz
authors.affiliation: Center for Psychobiology and Behavioral Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Otto-Behaghel-Str. 10F, 35394 Giessen, Germany.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hennig
mesh_terms: D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase / Q000235:genetics*; D016761:Oncogene Proteins v-fos / Q000235:genetics*; D011618:Psychotic Disorders / Q000235:genetics*; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4 / Q000235:genetics*; D050641:Receptors, Dopamine D5 / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: C493599:DRD4 protein, human; C493605:DRD5 protein, human; D016761:Oncogene Proteins v-fos; D050638:Receptors, Dopamine D4; D050641:Receptors, Dopamine D5; D008995:Monoamine Oxidase; C588010:COMT protein, human; D002394:Catechol O-Methyltransferase
keywords: Endophenotype; Gene expression; Molecular biology; Psychosis proneness; Schizophrenia and psychosis; Schizotypy