A potential role of fatty acid binding protein 4 in the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by difficulties in social communication and interaction, as well as repetitive and characteristic patterns of behaviour. Although the pathogenesis of autism spectrum disorder is unknown, being overweight or obesity during infancy and low weight at birth are known as risks, suggesting a metabolic aspect. In this study, we investigated adipose tissue development as a pathophysiological factor of autism spectrum disorder by examining the serum levels of adipokines and other metabolic markers in autism spectrum disorder children (n = 123) and typically developing children (n = 92) at 4-12 years of age. Among multiple measures exhibiting age-dependent trajectories, the leptin levels displayed different trajectory patterns between autism spectrum disorder and typically developing children, supporting an adipose tissue-dependent mechanism of autism spectrum disorder. Of particular interest, the levels of fatty acid binding protein 4 (FABP4) were significantly lower in autism spectrum disorder children than in typically developing subjects, at preschool age (4-6 years old: n = 21 for autism spectrum disorder and n = 26 for typically developing). The receiver operating characteristic curve analysis discriminated autism spectrum disorder children from typically developing children with a sensitivity of 94.4% and a specificity of 75.0%. We re-sequenced the exons of the FABP4 gene in a Japanese cohort comprising 659 autism spectrum disorder and 1000 control samples, and identified two rare functional variants in the autism spectrum disorder group. The Trp98Stop, one of the two variants, was transmitted to the proband from his mother with a history of depression. The disruption of the Fabp4 gene in mice evoked autism spectrum disorder-like behavioural phenotypes and increased spine density on apical dendrites of pyramidal neurons, which has been observed in the postmortem brains of autism spectrum disorder subjects. The Fabp4 knockout mice had an altered fatty acid composition in the cortex. Collectively, these results suggest that an 'adipo-brain axis' may underlie the pathophysiology of autism spectrum disorder, with FABP4 as a potential molecule for use as a biomarker.

VLDL-specific increases of fatty acids in autism spectrum disorder correlate with social interaction.

BACKGROUND: Abnormalities of lipid metabolism contributing to the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) pathogenesis have been suggested, but the mechanisms are not fully understood. We aimed to characterize the lipid metabolism in ASD and to explore a biomarker for clinical evaluation. METHODS: An age-matched case-control study was designed. Lipidomics was conducted using the plasma samples from 30 children with ASD compared to 30 typical developmental control (TD) children. Large-scale lipoprotein analyses were also conducted using the serum samples from 152 children with ASD compared to 122 TD children. Data comparing ASD to TD subjects were evaluated using univariate (Mann-Whitney test) and multivariate analyses (conditional logistic regression analysis) for main analyses using cofounders (diagnosis, sex, age, height, weight, and BMI), Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and discriminant analyses. FINDINGS: Forty-eight significant metabolites involved in lipid biosynthesis and metabolism, oxidative stress, and synaptic function were identified in the plasma of ASD children by lipidomics. Among these, increased fatty acids (FAs), such as omega-3 (n-3) and omega-6 (n-6), showed correlations with clinical social interaction score and ASD diagnosis. Specific reductions of very-low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) and apoprotein B (APOB) in serum of ASD children also were found by large-scale lipoprotein analysis. VLDL-specific reduction in ASD was correlated with APOB, indicating VLDL-specific dyslipidaemia associated with APOB in ASD children. INTERPRETATION: Our results demonstrated that the increases in FAs correlated positively with social interaction are due to VLDL-specific degradation, providing novel insights into the lipid metabolism underlying ASD pathophysiology. FUNDING: This study was supported mainly by MEXT, Japan.

Genetic and molecular risk factors within the newly identified primate-specific exon of the SAP97/DLG1 gene in the 3q29 schizophrenia-associated locus.

The synapse-associated protein 97/discs, large homolog 1 of Drosophila (DLG1) gene encodes synaptic scaffold PDZ proteins interacting with ionotropic glutamate receptors including the N-methyl-D-aspartate type glutamate receptor (NMDAR) that is presumed to be hypoactive in brains of patients with schizophrenia. The DLG1 gene resides in the chromosomal position 3q29, the microdeletion of which confers a 40-fold increase in the risk for schizophrenia. In the present study, we performed genetic association analyses for DLG1 gene using a Japanese cohort with 1808 schizophrenia patients and 2170 controls. We detected an association which remained significant after multiple comparison testing between schizophrenia and the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs3915512 that is located within the newly identified primate-specific exon (exon 3b) of the DLG1 gene and constitutes the exonic splicing enhancer sequence. When stratified by onset age, although it did not survive multiple comparisons, the association was observed in non-early onset schizophrenia, whose onset-age selectivity is consistent with our recent postmortem study demonstrating a decrease in the expression of the DLG1 variant in early-onset schizophrenia. Although the present study did not demonstrate the previously reported association of the SNP rs9843659 by itself, a meta-analysis revealed a significant association between DLG1 gene and schizophrenia. These findings provide a valuable clue for molecular mechanisms on how genetic variations in the primate-specific exon of the gene in the schizophrenia-associated 3q29 locus affect its regulation in the glutamate system and lead to the disease onset around a specific stage of brain development.

Depiction of microglial activation in aging and dementia: Positron emission tomography with [11C]DPA713 versus [11C]( R)PK11195.

The presence of activated microglia in the brains of healthy elderly people is a matter of debate. We aimed to clarify the degree of microglial activation in aging and dementia as revealed by different tracers by comparing the binding potential (BPND) in various brain regions using a first-generation translocator protein (TSPO) tracer [11C]( R)PK11195 and a second-generation tracer [11C]DPA713. The BPND levels, estimated using simplified reference tissue models, were compared among healthy young and elderly individuals and patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and were correlated with clinical scores. An analysis of variance showed category-dependent elevation in levels of [11C]DPA713 BPND in all brain regions and showed a significant increase in the AD group, whereas no significant changes among groups were found when [11C]( R)PK11195 BPND was used. Cognito-mnemonic scores were significantly correlated with [11C]DPA713 BPND levels in many brain regions, whereas [11C]( R)PK11195 BPND failed to correlate with the scores. As mentioned elsewhere, the present results confirmed that the second-generation TSPO tracer [11C]DPA713 has a greater sensitivity to TSPO in both aging and neuronal degeneration than [11C]( R)PK11195. Positron emission tomography with [11C]DPA713 is suitable for the delineation of in vivo microglial activation occurring globally over the cerebral cortex irrespective of aging and degeneration.

Enrichment of deleterious variants of mitochondrial DNA polymerase gene (POLG1) in bipolar disorder.

AIM: Rare missense variants, which likely account for a substantial portion of the genetic 'dark matter' for a common complex disease, are challenging because the impacts of variants on disease development are difficult to substantiate. This study aimed to examine the impacts of amino acid substitution variants in the POLG1 found in bipolar disorder, as an example and proof of concept, in three different modalities of assessment: in silico predictions, in vitro biochemical assays, and clinical evaluation. We then tested whether deleterious variants in POLG1 contributed to the genetics of bipolar disorder. METHODS: We searched for variants in the POLG1 gene in 796 Japanese patients with bipolar disorder and 767 controls and comprehensively investigated all 23 identified variants in the three modalities of assessment. POLG1 encodes mitochondrial DNA polymerase and is one of the causative genes for a Mendelian-inheritance mitochondrial disease, which is occasionally accompanied by mood disorders. The healthy control data from the Tohoku Medical Megabank Organization were also employed. RESULTS: Although the frequency of carriers of deleterious variants varied from one method to another, every assessment achieved the same conclusion that deleterious POLG1 variants were significantly enriched in the variants identified in patients with bipolar disorder compared to those in controls. CONCLUSION: Together with mitochondrial dysfunction in bipolar disorder, the present results suggested deleterious POLG1 variants as a credible risk for the multifactorial disease.

Mismatch in cerebral blood flow and glucose metabolism after the forced swim stress in rats.

OBJECTIVE: Neuroimaging studies of depression considered as a stress-related disorder have shown uncoupling in regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and regional cerebral metabolic rate for glucose (rCMRglc). We hypothesised that the mismatch change of rCBF and rCMRglc could be a stress-related phenomenon. METHODS: We exposed male rats to 15-min period of forced swim (FS), followed by the measurement of rCBF using N-isopropyl-4-[123I] iodoamphetamine (123I-IMP) and rCMRglc using 2-deoxy-2-[18F] fluoro-D-glucose (18F-FDG). RESULTS: The uptake rate of 18F-FDG in the FS group showed a significant decrease in the prefrontal cortex (0.86±0.20%ID/g, p<0.01) and thalamus (0.77±0.17%ID/g, p<0.05) and tended to be lower in the hippocampus (0.58±0.13%ID/g) and cerebellum (0.59±0.13%ID/g) without overt alteration in the uptake rate of 123I-IMP. CONCLUSIONS: The FS stress can cause mismatch change of rCBF and rCMRglc, which reflect a stress-related phenomenon.

Genome-wide Association Study of Autism Spectrum Disorder in the East Asian Populations.

Autism spectrum disorder is a heterogeneous neurodevelopmental disorder with strong genetic basis. To identify common genetic variations conferring the risk of ASD, we performed a two-stage genome-wide association study using ASD family and healthy control samples obtained from East Asian populations. A total of 166 ASD families (n = 500) and 642 healthy controls from the Japanese population were used as the discovery cohort. Approximately 900,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped using Affymetrix Genome-Wide Human SNP array 6.0 chips. In the replication stage, 205 Japanese ASD cases and 184 healthy controls, as well as 418 Chinese Han trios (n = 1,254), were genotyped by TaqMan platform. Case-control analysis, family based association test, and transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT) were then conducted to test the association. In the discovery stage, significant associations were suggested for 14 loci, including 5 known ASD candidate genes: GPC6, JARID2, YTHDC2, CNTN4, and CSMD1. In addition, significant associations were identified for several novel genes with intriguing functions, such as JPH3, PTPRD, CUX1, and RIT2. After a meta-analysis combining the Japanese replication samples, the strongest signal was found at rs16976358 (P = 6.04 × 10(-7)), which is located near the RIT2 gene. In summary, our results provide independent support to known ASD candidate genes and highlight a number of novel genes warranted to be further investigated in a larger sample set in an effort to improve our understanding of the genetic basis of ASD.

Investigation of the fatty acid transporter-encoding genes SLC27A3 and SLC27A4 in autism.

The solute carrier 27A (SLC27A) gene family encodes fatty acid transport proteins (FATPs) and includes 6 members. During fetal and postnatal periods of development, the growing brain requires a reliable supply of fatty acids. Because autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are now recognized as disorders caused by impaired early brain development, it is possible that functional abnormalities of SLC27A genes may contribute to the pathogenesis of ASD. Here, we confirmed the expression of SLC27A3 and SLC27A4 in human neural stem cells derived from human induced pluripotent stem cells, which suggested their involvement in the developmental stage of the central nervous system. Additionally, we resequenced the SLC27A3 and SLC27A4 genes using 267 ASD patient and 1140 control samples and detected 47 (44 novel and 29 nonsynonymous) and 30 (17 novel and 14 nonsynonymous) variants for the SLC27A3 and SLC27A4, respectively, revealing that they are highly polymorphic with multiple rare variants. The SLC27A4 Ser209 allele was more frequently represented in ASD samples. Furthermore, we showed that a SLC27A4 Ser209 mutant resulted in significantly higher fluorescently-labeled fatty acid uptake into bEnd3 cells, a mouse brain capillary-derived endothelial cell line, compared with SLC27A4 Gly209, suggesting that the functional change may contribute to ASD pathophysiology.

Population-dependent contribution of the major histocompatibility complex region to schizophrenia susceptibility.

There is consistent data from European cohorts suggesting a genetic contribution from the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. However, the genomic complexity and ethnicity-specific diversity found in the MHC cause difficulties in identifying causal variants or genes, and there is a need for studies encompassing the entire MHC region in multiple ethnic populations. Here, we report on association signals in the MHC region, with schizophrenia in the Japanese population. We genotyped and imputed a total of 10,131 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), spanning the entire MHC interval. The analysis included 3302 participants (1518 schizophrenics and 1784 healthy controls) from the Japanese population. In this study, we present evidence for association at rs494620, located in the SLC44A4 gene. The association survived after correction for multiple testing (unadjusted P=7.78×10(-5), empirical P=0.0357). The imputation results detected the highest association at rs707937 in the MSH5-SAPCD1 gene (imputed P=8.40×10(-5)). In expression analysis using postmortem brains from schizophrenia and control samples, MSH5-SAPCD1 showed marginally significant expression differences in Brodmann's area 46 (P=0.044 by unpaired t test with Welch's correction, P=0.099 by Mann-Whitney U test). Our study further strengthens evidence for the involvement of the MHC in schizophrenia across populations, and provides insight into population-specific mechanisms for the MHC region in schizophrenia susceptibility.

Erratum to: Association study of H2AFZ with schizophrenia in a Japanese case-control sample.

Table 1 contains several errors as originally published. Table 1 should read as follows; the corrected values are shown in italics.

Genetic analysis of the glyoxalase system in schizophrenia.

Recent reports suggest that carbonyl stress might affect a subset of schizophrenia patients suffering from severe symptoms. Carbonyl stress protection is achieved by the glyoxalase system consisting of two enzymes, glyoxalase 1 and 2, which in humans are encoded by the genes GLO1 and HAGH, respectively. Glyoxalase 1 and 2 catalyze the detoxification of reactive alpha-oxoaldehydes such as glyoxal and methylglyoxal, which are particularly damaging components of carbonyl stress. Here, we investigated the role of the glyoxalase system in schizophrenia by performing association analyses of common genetic variants (n=12) in GLO1 and HAGH in a Japanese sample consisting of 2012 schizophrenia patients and 2170 healthy controls. We detected a nominally significant association with schizophrenia (p=0.020) of rs11859266, a SNP in the intronic region of HAGH. However, rs11859266 did not survive multiple testing (empirical p=0.091). The variants in HAGH, rs11859266 and rs3743852, showed significant associations with schizophrenia in males at allelic and genotype levels, which remained persistent after multiple testing with the exception of rs3743852 for the genotype model. We further measured the mRNA expression of both genes in postmortem brain, but did not detect any changes in transcript expression levels between case and control samples or in sex-specific comparisons. Therefore, our findings suggest that an explanation of elevated carbonyl stress in a substantial part (reported as ~20%) of patients with schizophrenia will require the examination of a much larger cohort to detect risk alleles with weak effect size and/or other risk factors.

Association study of H2AFZ with schizophrenia in a Japanese case-control sample.

It is widely accepted that malfunction of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)-type glutamate receptor may be involved in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. Several recent microRNA (miRNA) studies have demonstrated that the expression of the glutamate system-related miR-132 and miR-212 is changed in postmortem schizophrenic brains. Here we attempted to obtain further insight into the relationships among schizophrenia, the NMDA receptor, the molecular cascades controlled by these miRNAs and commonly predicted target genes of the two miRNAs. We focused on the H2AFZ (encoding H2A histone family, member Z) gene, whose expression was shown in our screening study to be modified by a schizophrenomimetic NMDA antagonist, phencyclidine. By performing polymerase chain reaction with fluorescent signal detention using the TaqMan system, we examined four tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs; SNP01-04) located around and within the H2AFZ gene for their genetic association with schizophrenia. The subjects were a Japanese cohort (2,012 patients with schizophrenia and 2,170 control subjects). We did not detect any significant genetic association of these SNPs with schizophrenia in this cohort. However, we observed a significant association of SNP02 (rs2276939) in the male patients with schizophrenia (allelic P = 0.003, genotypic P = 0.008). A haplotype analysis revealed that haplotypes consisting of SNP02-SNP03 (rs10014424)-SNP04 (rs6854536) also showed a significant association in the male patients with schizophrenia (P = 0.018). These associations remained significant even after correction for multiple testing. The present findings suggest that the H2AFZ gene may be a susceptibility factor in male subjects with schizophrenia, and that modification of the H2AFZ signaling pathway warrants further study in terms of the pathophysiology of schizophrenia.

Sequencing and expression analyses of the synaptic lipid raft adapter gene PAG1 in schizophrenia.

Disruption of synaptic networks has been advocated in the pathogenesis of psychiatric diseases like schizophrenia. The majority of synaptic proteins involved in neuronal communications are localized in lipid rafts. These rafts form the platform for coordinating neuronal signal transduction, by clustering interacting partners. The PAG1 protein is a transmembrane adaptor protein in the lipid raft signaling cluster that regulates Src family kinases (SFKs), a convergent point for multiple pathways regulating N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Reports of de novo missense mutations in PAG1 and SFK mediated reductions in tyrosine phosphorylation of NMDA receptor subunit proteins in schizophrenia patients, point to a putative role in schizophrenia pathogenesis. To evaluate this, we resequenced the entire coding region of PAG1 in Japanese schizophrenia patients (n = 1,140) and controls (n = 1,140). We identified eight missense variants, of which four were previously unreported. Case-control genetic association analysis of these variants in a larger cohort (n = 4,182) showed neither a statistically significant association of the individual variants with schizophrenia, nor any increased burden of the rare alleles in the patient group. Expression levels of PAG1 in post-mortem brain samples from schizophrenia patients and controls also showed no significant differences. To assess the precise role of PAG1 in schizophrenia, future studies with larger sample sizes are needed.

Perinatal asphyxia alters neuregulin-1 and COMT gene expression in the medial prefrontal cortex in rats.

Epidemiological studies suggest that perinatal complications, particularly hypoxia-related ones, increase the risk of schizophrenia. Recent genetic studies of the disorder have identified several putative susceptibility genes, some of which are known to be regulated by hypoxia. It can be postulated therefore that birth complications that cause hypoxia in the fetal brain may be associated with a dysregulation in the expression of some of the schizophrenia candidate genes. To test this, we used an animal model of perinatal asphyxia, in which rat pups were exposed to 15 min of intrauterine anoxia during Caesarean section birth, and examined the expression of mRNA of five of the putative susceptibility genes (NRG1, ErbB4, AKT1, COMT and BDNF) by real-time quantitative PCR in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and the hippocampus at 6 and 12 weeks after birth. The expression of NRG1 mRNA was significantly decreased in the mPFC, but not in the hippocampus, at 6 and 12 weeks after birth. In addition, a significant increase in COMT mRNA expression was observed in the mPFC at 12 weeks. The alteration in mRNA levels of NRG1 and COMT was not associated with a change in their protein levels. These results suggest that perinatal asphyxia may lead to disturbances in the PFC, which in turn may exert a long-lasting influence on the expression of specific genes, such as NRG1 and COMT. Our results also suggest that translational interruption may occur in this model of perinatal asphyxia.

Utility of Scalp Hair Follicles as a Novel Source of Biomarker Genes for Psychiatric Illnesses.

BACKGROUND: Identifying beneficial surrogate genetic markers in psychiatric disorders is crucial but challenging. METHODS: Given that scalp hair follicles are easily accessible and, like the brain, are derived from the ectoderm, expressions of messenger RNA (mRNA) and microRNA in the organ were examined between schizophrenia (n for first/second = 52/42) and control subjects (n = 62/55) in two sets of cohort. Genes of significance were also analyzed using postmortem brains (n for case/control = 35/35 in Brodmann area 46, 20/20 in cornu ammonis 1) and induced pluripotent stem cells (n = 4/4) and pluripotent stem cell-derived neurospheres (n = 12/12) to see their role in the central nervous system. Expression levels of mRNA for autism (n for case/control = 18/24) were also examined using scalp hair follicles. RESULTS: Among mRNA examined, FABP4 was downregulated in schizophrenia subjects by two independent sample sets. Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis determined that the sensitivity and specificity were 71.8% and 66.7%, respectively. FABP4 was expressed from the stage of neurosphere. Additionally, microarray-based microRNA analysis showed a trend of increased expression of hsa-miR-4449 (p = .0634) in hair follicles from schizophrenia. hsa-miR-4449 expression was increased in Brodmann area 46 from schizophrenia (p = .0007). Finally, we tested the expression of nine putative autism candidate genes in hair follicles and found decreased CNTNAP2 expression in the autism cohort. CONCLUSIONS: Scalp hair follicles could be a beneficial genetic biomarker resource for brain diseases, and further studies of FABP4 are merited in schizophrenia pathogenesis.

Exon resequencing of H3K9 methyltransferase complex genes, EHMT1, EHTM2 and WIZ, in Japanese autism subjects.

BACKGROUND: Histone H3 methylation at lysine 9 (H3K9) is a conserved epigenetic signal, mediating heterochromatin formation by trimethylation, and transcriptional silencing by dimethylation. Defective GLP (Ehmt1) and G9a (Ehmt2) histone lysine methyltransferases, involved in mono and dimethylation of H3K9, confer autistic phenotypes and behavioral abnormalities in animal models. Moreover, EHMT1 loss of function results in Kleefstra syndrome, characterized by severe intellectual disability, developmental delays and psychiatric disorders. We examined the possible role of histone methyltransferases in the etiology of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and suggest that rare functional variants in these genes that regulate H3K9 methylation may be associated with ASD. METHODS: Since G9a-GLP-Wiz forms a heteromeric methyltransferase complex, all the protein-coding regions and exon/intron boundaries of EHMT1, EHMT2 and WIZ were sequenced in Japanese ASD subjects. The detected variants were prioritized based on novelty and functionality. The expression levels of these genes were tested in blood cells and postmortem brain samples from ASD and control subjects. Expression of EHMT1 and EHMT2 isoforms were determined by digital PCR. RESULTS: We identified six nonsynonymous variants: three in EHMT1, two in EHMT2 and one in WIZ. Two variants, the EHMT1 ankyrin repeat domain (Lys968Arg) and EHMT2 SET domain (Thr961Ile) variants were present exclusively in cases, but showed no statistically significant association with ASD. The EHMT2 transcript expression was significantly elevated in the peripheral blood cells of ASD when compared with control samples; but not for EHMT1 and WIZ. Gene expression levels of EHMT1, EHMT2 and WIZ in Brodmann area (BA) 9, BA21, BA40 and the dorsal raphe nucleus (DoRN) regions from postmortem brain samples showed no significant changes between ASD and control subjects. Nor did expression levels of EHMT1 and EHMT2 isoforms in the prefrontal cortex differ significantly between ASD and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: We identified two novel rare missense variants in the EHMT1 and EHMT2 genes of ASD patients. We surmise that these variants alone may not be sufficient to exert a significant effect on ASD pathogenesis. The elevated expression of EHMT2 in the peripheral blood cells may support the notion of a restrictive chromatin state in ASD, similar to schizophrenia.

Zinc finger protein 804A (ZNF804A) and verbal deficits in individuals with autism.

BACKGROUND: In a genome-wide association study of autism, zinc finger protein 804A (ZNF804A) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were found to be nominally associated in verbally deficient individuals with autism. Zinc finger protein 804A copy number variations (CNVs) have also been observed in individuals with autism. In addition, ZNF804A is known to be involved in theory of mind (ToM) tasks, and ToM deficits are deemed responsible for the communication and social challenges faced by individuals with autism. We hypothesized that ZNF804A could be a risk gene for autism. METHODS: We examined the genetic association and CNVs of ZNF804A in 841 families in which 1 or more members had autism. We compared the expression of ZNF804A in the postmortem brains of individuals with autism (n = 8) and controls (n = 13). We also assessed in vitro the effect of ZNF804A silencing on the expression of several genes known to be involved in verbal efficiency and social cognition. RESULTS: We found that rs7603001 was nominally associated with autism (p = 0.018). The association was stronger (p = 0.008) in the families of individuals with autism who were verbally deficient (n = 761 families). We observed ZNF804A CNVs in 7 verbally deficient boys with autism. In ZNF804A knockdown cells, the expression of synaptosomal-associated protein, 25kDa (SNAP25) was reduced compared with controls (p = 0.009). The expression of ZNF804A (p = 0.009) and SNAP25 (p = 0.009) were reduced in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) of individuals with autism. There was a strong positive correlation between the expression of ZNF804A and SNAP25 in the ACG (p < 0.001). LIMITATIONS: Study limitations include our small sample size of postmortem brains. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that ZNF804A could be a potential candidate gene mediating the intermediate phenotypes associated with verbal traits in individuals with autism.

Population-specific haplotype association of the postsynaptic density gene DLG4 with schizophrenia, in family-based association studies.

The post-synaptic density (PSD) of glutamatergic synapses harbors a multitude of proteins critical for maintaining synaptic dynamics. Alteration of protein expression levels in this matrix is a marked phenomenon of neuropsychiatric disorders including schizophrenia, where cognitive functions are impaired. To investigate the genetic relationship of genes expressed in the PSD with schizophrenia, a family-based association analysis of genetic variants in PSD genes such as DLG4, DLG1, PICK1 and MDM2, was performed, using Japanese samples (124 pedigrees, n = 376 subjects). Results showed a significant association of the rs17203281 variant from the DLG4 gene, with preferential transmission of the C allele (p = 0.02), although significance disappeared after correction for multiple testing. Replication analysis of this variant, found no association in a Chinese schizophrenia cohort (293 pedigrees, n = 1163 subjects) or in a Japanese case-control sample (n = 4182 subjects). The DLG4 expression levels between postmortem brain samples from schizophrenia patients showed no significant changes from controls. Interestingly, a five marker haplotype in DLG4, involving rs2242449, rs17203281, rs390200, rs222853 and rs222837, was enriched in a population specific manner, where the sequences A-C-C-C-A and G-C-C-C-A accumulated in Japanese (p = 0.0009) and Chinese (p = 0.0007) schizophrenia pedigree samples, respectively. However, this could not be replicated in case-control samples. None of the variants in other examined candidate genes showed any significant association in these samples. The current study highlights a putative role for DLG4 in schizophrenia pathogenesis, evidenced by haplotype association, and warrants further dense screening for variants within these haplotypes.