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Association of DISC1 and TSNAX genes and affective disorders in the depression case–control (DeCC) and bipolar affective case–control (BACCS) studies

Molecular Psychiatry volume 15, pages 844–849 (2010)Cite this article

Abstract

The gene known as Disrupted-in-Schizophrenia-1, DISC1, was originally discovered in a large family, in which it also co-segregated with bipolar affective disorder (BD) and with major depressive disorder (MDD). The TSNAX (Translin-associated factor X) gene, located immediately upstream of DISC1, has also been suggested as a candidate gene in relation to psychiatric illness, as one transcript resulting from intergenic splicing encodes a novel TSNAX–DISC1 fusion protein. We explored the TSNAX–DISC1 gene region for an association with BD and MDD in a sample of 1984 patients (1469 MDD, 515 BD) and 1376 ethnically matched controls. Eight single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the TSNAX–DISC1 region (rs766288, rs3738401, rs2492367, rs6675281, rs12133766, rs1000731, rs7546310 and rs821597) were investigated using the SNPlex Genotyping System. We found a significant allelic and genotypic association of the TSNAX–DISC1 gene region with BD, whereas a haplotypic association was found for both BD and MDD. Therefore, our results suggest an association between the TSNAX–DISC1 region and both forms of affective disorders, and support the hypothesis that a portion of the genotypic overlap between schizophrenia and affective disorders is attributable to this gene.

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Acknowledgements

Dr Schosser was supported by an Erwin-Schrödinger Fellowship (Ref. No. J2647) of the Austrian Science Funds. Dr Gaysina was supported by the INTAS Postdoctoral Fellowship (Ref. No. 04-83-3802) and by the Russian Science Support Foundation. Dr Cohen-Woods was supported by a Medical Research Council (MRC) UK PhD studentship. The depression case–control collection (DeCC) was funded by the MRC UK and the bipolar affective disorder case–control study (BACCS) collection was supported by GlaxoSmithKline, Research and Development.

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Author notes

  1. A Schosser and D Gaysina: These two authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. MRC SGDP Centre, Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London, De Crespigny Park, London, UK

    A Schosser, D Gaysina, S Cohen-Woods, P C Chow, L Martucci, A Farmer, C Gunasinghe, J Gray, I W Craig & P McGuffin

  2. Department of Psychological Medicine, Cardiff University, School of Medicine, Heath Park, Cardiff, UK

    N Craddock & M J Owen

  3. Centre for Psychiatry, Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, Barts and The London School of Medicine and Dentistry, Charterhouse Square, London, UK

    A Korszun

  4. Division of Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    L Jones

  5. Genetics Division, Drug Discovery, GlaxoSmithKline R&D, Verona, Italy

    F Tozzi, J Perry & P Muglia

  6. Genetics Division, Drug Discovery, GlaxoSmithKline R&D, Greenford, Middlesex, UK

    F Tozzi, J Perry & P Muglia

  7. Ufa Scientific Center, Institute of Biochemistry and Genetics, RAS, Ufa, Russia

    D Gaysina

  8. Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Medical University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria

    A Schosser

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  1. A Schosser
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Correspondence to A Schosser.

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Schosser, A., Gaysina, D., Cohen-Woods, S. et al. Association of DISC1 and TSNAX genes and affective disorders in the depression case–control (DeCC) and bipolar affective case–control (BACCS) studies. Mol Psychiatry 15, 844–849 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1038/mp.2009.21

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