Unravelling Genes and Pathways Implicated in Working Memory of Schizophrenia in Han Chinese

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Hongyan Ren¹  Chengcheng Zhang¹  Chaohua Huang¹  Na Li¹  Mingli Li¹  Yinfei Li¹  Wei Deng¹  Xiaohong Ma¹  Bo Xiang²  Qiang Wang¹  Tao Li¹ 

[1] Mental Health Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 28 Dian Xin Nan Road, Chengdu 610041, China; E-Mails:;State Key Laboratory of Biotherapy, Psychiatric Laboratory, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, 1 Ke Yuan 4 Road, Hi-Tech Developmental Zone, Chengdu 610041, China; E-Mail:

关键词: working memory;    delayed-matching-to-sample test;    schizophrenia;    genome-wide association study;    pathway;   

DOI  :  10.3390/ijms16012145

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Working memory deficit is the core neurocognitive disorder in schizophrenia patients. To identify the factors underlying working memory deficit in schizophrenia patients and to explore the implication of possible genes in the working memory using genome-wide association study (GWAS) of schizophrenia, computerized delay-matching-to-sample (DMS) and whole genome genotyping data were obtained from 100 first-episode, treatment-naïve patients with schizophrenia and 140 healthy controls from the Mental Health Centre of the West China Hospital, Sichuan University. A composite score, delay-matching-to-sample total correct numbers (DMS-TC), was found to be significantly different between the patients and control. On associating quantitative DMS-TC with interactive variables of groups × genotype, one SNP (rs1411832), located downstream of YWHAZP5 in chromosome 10, was found to be associated with the working memory deficit in schizophrenia patients with lowest p-value (p = 2.02 × 10⁻⁷). ConsensusPathDB identified that genes with SNPs for which p values below the threshold of 5 × 10⁻⁵ were significantly enriched in GO:0007155 (cell adhesion, p < 0.001). This study indicates that working memory, as an endophenotype of schizophrenia, could improve the efficacy of GWAS in schizophrenia. However, further study is required to replicate the results from our study.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.