American journal of medical genetics. Part B, Neuropsychiatric genetics : the official publication of the International Society of Psychiatric Genetics
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Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. · Sep 2009
Identification of new putative susceptibility genes for several psychiatric disorders by association analysis of regulatory and non-synonymous SNPs of 306 genes involved in neurotransmission and neurodevelopment.
A fundamental difficulty in human genetics research is the identification of the spectrum of genetic variants that contribute to the susceptibility to common/complex disorders. We tested here the hypothesis that functional genetic variants may confer susceptibility to several related common disorders. ⋯ Remarkably, a functional SNP, rs945032, located in the promoter region of the bradykinin receptor B2 gene (BDKRB2) was associated to three disorders (panic disorder, substance abuse, and bipolar disorder), and two additional BDKRB2 SNPs to obsessive-compulsive disorder and major depression, providing evidence for common variants of susceptibility to several related psychiatric disorders. The association of BDKRB2 (odd ratios between 1.65 and 3.06) to several psychiatric disorders supports the view that a common genetic variant could confer susceptibility to clinically related phenotypes, and defines a new functional hint in the pathophysiology of psychiatric diseases.