Lack of association of COMT Val158Met polymorphism with attention and executive function in patients with schizophrenia / 中华医学遗传学杂志

ABSTRACT

<p><b>OBJECTIVE</b>To explore the association of a functional polymorphism Val158Met of COMT gene and attention and executive function in first-episode treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls.</p><p><b>METHODS</b>Trail making test (TMT) and clinical performances were evaluated in 103 first-episode treatment-naive patients with schizophrenia and 99 healthy controls. Polymorphism of COMT Val158Met was analyzed using polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method. A general linear model was used to investigate the effect of genotype subgroups on the attention and executive function.</p><p><b>RESULTS</b>There was a significant difference between control subjects and patients with schizophrenia on the TMT-A and B. However, no significant difference among Val/Val, Val/Met and Met/Met on the TMT-A and B in control subjects and patients with schizophrenia was detected.</p><p><b>CONCLUSION</b>The association among COMT Met variant and trail making testing (attention and executive function) has been replicated. However, no association of COMT Met variant with disruption of dopaminergic influence on neurocognitive function was detected. This may be due to the heterogeneity of population.</p>