title: Serotonin 2A receptor gene (HTR2A) regulatory variants: possible association with severity of depression symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Our aim was to characterize the association of 2 functional single nucleotide polymorphisms (rs6311 and rs6314) in the serotonin 2A receptor gene (HTR2A) with severity of depression symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder. These polymorphisms have been shown to be associated with depression symptom severity and response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor drugs in adults with diagnosed depressive disorder.
  
  
  METHODS
  Parents of 104 children with autism spectrum disorder rated their children's depressive symptoms using a validated scale based on criteria from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition. We compared severity of depression symptoms across the rs6311 and rs6314 genotypes, measured from the children's genomic DNA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children homozygous for the G allele of rs6311 had significantly more severe depression symptoms than those with G/A or A/A genotypes (P=0.025). The effect size (partial eta-squared) was small (ηp=0.047) but was somewhat larger when we controlled for severity of generalized anxiety disorder symptoms (P=0.006, ηp=0.072). When we restricted our analyses to white participants, our results were essentially the same as for the entire sample (P=0.004, ηp=0.086). There was no significant association between rs6314 (C/C versus T carriers) and severity of depression.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our findings suggest that the HTR2A functional rs6311 polymorphism, which other studies have associated with differential HTR2A mRNA expression, may modulate the severity of depression symptoms in children with autism spectrum disorder. These tentative, hypothesis-generating findings need replication with larger, independent samples.
authors: *Department of Psychiatry, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, NY †Department of Pharmacology, Center for Pharmacogenomics, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH.
authors: Kenneth D
authors: KD
authors: Gadow
authors: Ryan M
authors: RM
authors: Smith
authors: Julia K
authors: JK
authors: Pinsonneault
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D002648:Child; D002659:Child Development Disorders, Pervasive / Q000235:genetics* / Q000523:psychology*; D003863:Depression / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000235:genetics*; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D020641:Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; D044402:Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A / Q000235:genetics*; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012720:Severity of Illness Index
chemical_list: D044402:Receptor, Serotonin, 5-HT2A; D017367:Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors