Altered expression of the DISC1 gene in peripheral blood of patients with schizophrenia

BMC Medical Genetics

Ling Zhang¹  Xiaoqian Fu¹  Yansong Liu¹  Fuquan Zhang²  Conghua Zhou³  Guofu Zhang⁴ 

[1] Department of Clinical Psychology, Suzhou Guangji Hospital, The Affiliated Guangji Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, Jiangsu, China;Department of Psychiatry, The Affiliated Brain Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, 264 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, China;School of Computer Science and Telecommunication Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, China;Wuxi Mental Health Center of Nanjing Medical University, 156 Qianrong Road, Wuxi, China;

关键词: Schizophrenia;    DISC1;    Antipsychotics;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12881-020-01132-9

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundSchizophrenia is a severe, heritable, and refractory psychiatric disorder. Several studies have shown that the disrupted in schizophrenia 1 (DISC1) gene is closely associated with schizophrenia by its role in neuronal morphology, synaptic function, brain development, and dopamine homeostasis etc. This study intended to investigate the expression levels of DISC1 gene in schizophrenia patients compared with healthy controls, and the expression variation of DISC1 gene before and after antipsychotic treatment in schizophrenia patients.MethodsIn this study, we compared DISC1 expression levels in blood of 48 healthy controls, and 32 schizophrenia patients before and after 12 weeks of antipsychotic treatment using real-time quantitative PCR (RT-qPCR) analysis.ResultsThe expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients before antipsychotic treatment were higher than those in healthy controls (P < 0.01); whereas after antipsychotic treatment, the expression levels of DISC1 gene in peripheral blood mononuclear cells of schizophrenia patients still remained increased (P < 0.01).ConclusionsOur study provided further support for the involvement of DISC1 in the development of schizophrenia.

【 授权许可】

CC BY