title: Aberrant NMDA receptor DNA methylation detected by epigenome-wide analysis of hippocampus and prefrontal cortex in major depression.
abstract: Current perspectives on the molecular underpinnings of major depressive disorder (MDD) posit a mechanistic role of epigenetic DNA modifications in mediating the interaction between environmental risk factors and a genetic predisposition. However, conclusive evidence for differential methylation signatures in the brain's epigenome of MDD patients as compared to controls is still lacking. To address this issue, we conducted a pilot study including an epigenome-wide methylation analysis in six individuals diagnosed with recurrent MDD and six control subjects matched for age and gender, with a priori focus on the hippocampus and prefrontal cortex as pathophysiologically relevant candidate regions. Our analysis revealed differential methylation profiles of 11 genes in hippocampus and 20 genes in prefrontal cortex, five of which were selected for replication of the methylation status using pyrosequencing. Among these replicated targets, GRIN2A was found to be hypermethylated in both prefrontal cortex and hippocampus. This finding may be of particular functional relevance as GRIN2A encodes the glutamatergic N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit epsilon-1 (NR2A) and is known to be involved in a plethora of synaptic plasticity-related regulatory processes probably disturbed in MDD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, University of Bonn, Sigmund-Freud-Str. 25, 53105, Bonn, Germany, oliver.kaut@ukb.uni-bonn.de.
authors.forename: Oliver
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Kaut
authors.forename: Ina
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Schmitt
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Hofmann
authors.forename: Per
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Hoffmann
authors.forename: Thomas E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Schlaepfer
authors.forename: Ullrich
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Wüllner
authors.forename: René
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Hurlemann
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D019175:DNA Methylation; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000473:pathology*; D044127:Epigenesis, Genetic / Q000235:genetics*; D005260:Female; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation / Q000502:physiology*; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000378:metabolism*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D046228:Microarray Analysis; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011180:Postmortem Changes; D017397:Prefrontal Cortex / Q000378:metabolism*; D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D016194:Receptors, N-Methyl-D-Aspartate