ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Mood disorders are the most frequent psychiatric disorders in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy caused by hippocampal sclerosis (TLE-HS). The pathophysiological mechanisms in common between TLE and mood disorders include abnormalities in the serotonergic pathway. We aimed to evaluate the association between serotonin transporter genetic polymorphisms - 5-HTTLPR and 5-HTTVNTR - and the presence of mood disorders in patients with TLE-HS. METHODS: We evaluated 119 patients with TLE-HS, with and without psychiatric disorder; 146 patients diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 113 healthy volunteers. Individuals were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR and 5-HTTVNTR polymorphisms. RESULTS: No difference was observed between the TLE-HS groups, healthy controls, and MDD without epilepsy. There was a correlation between the 12-allele of the 5-HTTVNTR and the family history of patients with epilepsy with TLE-HS (pâ¯=â¯0.013). CONCLUSIONS: In this study conducted in two Brazilian centers, the serotonin transporter polymorphisms evaluated cannot be associated with depressive disorder in patients with TLE-HS. Still, they do have some influence over some clinical characteristics of epilepsy in TLE-HS. These data may not be reproduced in other populations with distinct ethnic characteristics.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder, Major , Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe , Brazil , Depression , Depressive Disorder, Major/complications , Depressive Disorder, Major/genetics , Depressive Disorder, Major/pathology , Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe/complications , Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe/genetics , Epilepsy, Temporal Lobe/pathology , Hippocampus/pathology , Humans , Polymorphism, Genetic/genetics , Sclerosis/genetics , Sclerosis/pathology , Serotonin Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins/geneticsABSTRACT
PURPOSE: Some variants of the brain derived neurotrophic factors (BDNF) gene, namely the Val66Met (rs6265), may contribute the risk for epilepsy development. We aimed to investigate if this polymorphism was associated with the risk for epilepsy development in TLE-HS and its correlation with epilepsy-related factors and the presence of psychiatric disorders. METHODS: We assessed 119 patients with unequivocal TLE-HS and 112 healthy controls. Individuals were genotyped for the polymorphisms of the gene encoding BDNF Val66Met. RESULTS: There was no difference between TLE-HS and healthy controls, for the genotypic distribution (pâ¯=â¯0.636) and allelic distribution (pâ¯=â¯0.471). There was no correlation between Val66Met and epilepsy-related factors and for psychiatric comorbidities (pâ¯=â¯0.888). CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that polymorphism Val66Met is not associated with TLE-HS, epilepsy-related factors and psychiatric comorbidities in this selected group of patients.
