ABSTRACT
The aim of the present study was to examine the association between polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase(COMT) gene and Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a Brazilian population. The case-control method was used to study the association between AD and genetic variants of COMT. Six tag single-nucleotide polymorphisms(SNPs) in the COMT gene were genotyped by RT-PCR. Our findings showed that the 6 tag SNPs analyzed in this study were not associated with AD at the allele and genotype levels in comparison with the control group. No statistical difference was found between groups with and without behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia (BPSD). Our results do not support the hypothesis that the polymorphisms of the COMT gene may be associated with susceptibility to AD with and without BPSD.
Subject(s)
Alzheimer Disease/genetics , Catechol O-Methyltransferase/genetics , Genetic Predisposition to Disease , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Alzheimer Disease/psychology , Brazil , Case-Control Studies , Female , Gene Frequency , Genotype , Haplotypes , Humans , Male , Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide , Population Groups/genetics , Real-Time Polymerase Chain ReactionABSTRACT
The occurrence of mania during antidepressant treatment is a key issue in the clinical management of bipolar disorder (BD). Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) has been implicated in the pathogenesis of mood disorders. Moreover, antidepressants increase the expression of BDNF and its overactivity may be involved in the mechanism of development of the manic state. The aim of the present study was to test the influence of BDNF gene alterations in antidepressant-induced mania in bipolar patients. A case-control study was performed to analyse genotype and allele frequencies for the BDNF polymorphisms between two groups [37 patients with antidepressant-induced mania (AIM+) and 55 patients without antidepressant-induced mania (AIM-)]. No significant differences were found between AIM+ and AIM- groups. Our results did not support the BDNF gene link to antidepressant-induced mania, like a previous study with a smaller sample has already suggested.
