Abstract
Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common and complex psychiatric disease associated with hereditary and environmental risk factors. MicroRNAs (miRNAs or miRs) are small, noncoding RNA molecules that endogenously regulate gene expression. Single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in related miRNA genes are associated with susceptibility of the disorder. We wonder if the SNPs have influence on the effectiveness of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) for SCZ. rs1625579 within miR-137, rs6577555 within miR-34, and rs2296616 within miR-107 were sequenced in 150 cases and 150 controls to check the potential association between the SNPs and SCZ. Our results showed that allele G in rs1625579 (p = 0.005, adjusted OR = 1.379, 95%CI = 1.108 − 1.634), allele A in rs6577555 (p = 0.014, adjusted OR = 1.246, 95%CI = 1.045 − 1.463), allele G in rs2296616 (p < 0.001, adjusted OR = 1.646, 95%CI = 1.374 − 1.879) are positively associated with the disorder risk. MECT courses did significantly decrease the level of the miRNAs, except for the variant of rs2296616 with the AA genotype. Schizophrenic phenotypes assessed by the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS) were improved after MECT, and there was no significant relevance observed between the effectiveness of MECT and the variants of these loci. Thus, our findings indicate that polymorphisms within the loci may be involved in the pathogenesis of SCZ, and MECT is effective and unbiased for patients harboring different genotypes of the loci.
Highlights
Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common mental disorder manifested as psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, reduced expression of emotions, strange speeches, and a decreased capability to cognize reality, and about 0.7% of people are affected by SCZ in their lifetimes [1]
MiRNAs are short and noncoding RNAs of 19–25 nucleotides which can interact with the 3′-untranslated region (UTR) of targeted mRNAs to negatively modulate the expression at the posttranscriptional level [7, 8], which is believed to regulate approximately 60% of encoding genes [9] and play a vital role in various biological processes [10]
MiR-137 rs1625579 was Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine identified as a risk locus for SCZ in a genomewide association studies (GWASs) analysis performed by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) [15]
Summary
Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common mental disorder manifested as psychosis, hallucinations, delusions, reduced expression of emotions, strange speeches, and a decreased capability to cognize reality, and about 0.7% of people are affected by SCZ in their lifetimes [1]. In the studies on SCZ, miR-34 expression was found to be associated with the disease in peripheral blood mononuclear cells in a meta-analysis involving 330 patients and 202 healthy controls [11]; miR-107 was significantly upregulated in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of SCZ patients [6]. MiR-137 rs1625579 was Computational and Mathematical Methods in Medicine identified as a risk locus for SCZ in a GWAS analysis performed by the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium (PGC) [15]. This SNP locus in miR-137 is on chromosome 1p21.3, which was found to be the strongest predictor of SCZ risk in the analysis [16]. We will focus if there is an association between the effectiveness of modified electroconvulsive therapy (MECT) and the SNPs in related miRNAs
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