Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Immediate Communication
  • Published:

Support for genetic variation in neuregulin 1 and susceptibility to schizophrenia

Abstract

Recently, it has been reported that genetic variants around the gene neuregulin 1 are associated with schizophrenia in an Icelandic sample. Of particular interest was the presence of a single-risk haplotype that was significantly over-represented in schizophrenic individuals compared to controls (15.4 : 7.5%, P=6.7 × 10−6). We have attempted to replicate this result in our large collection of 573 schizophrenia cases and 618 controls. We found that the risk haplotype was more common in cases than controls (9.5 : 7.5%; P=0.04), and especially in our subset of 141 cases with a family history of schizophrenia (11.6%; P=0.019). Our results therefore replicate the Icelandic findings in an out-bred Northern European population, although they suggest that the risk conferred by the haplotype is small.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Stefansson H, Sigurdsson E, Steinthorsdottir V, Bjornsdottir S, Sigmundsson T, Ghosh S et al. Neuregulin 1 and susceptibility to schizophrenia. Am J Hum Gen 2002; 71: 877–892.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Blouin JL, Dombroski BA, Nath SK, Lasseter VK, Wolyniec PS, Nestadt G et al. Schizophrenia susceptibility loci on chromosomes 13q32 and 8p21. Nat Genet 1998; 20: 70–73.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  3. Kendler KS, MacLean CJ, ONeill FA, Burke J, Murphy B, Duke F et al. Evidence for a schizophrenia vulnerability locus on chromosome 8p in the Irish study of high-density schizophrenia families. Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153: 1534–1540.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  4. Kaufmann CA, Suarez B, Malaspina D, Pepple J, Svrakic D, Markel PD et al. NIMH Genetics Initiative Millennium Schizophrenia Consortium: linkage analysis of African-American pedigrees. Am J Med Gen 1998; 81: 282–289.

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Stefansson H, Sarginson J, Kong A, Yates P, Steinthorsdottir V, Gudfinnsson E et al. Association of Neuregulin 1 with schizophrenia confirmed in a Scottish population. Am J Hum Genet 2002; 72: 83–87.

    Article  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edn. American Psychiatric Association: Washington DC, 1994.

  7. Wing JK, Babor T, Brugha T . SCAN: schedules for the clinical assessment in neuropsychiatry. Arch Gen Psychiatry 1990; 47: 589–593.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  8. Wing JK, Cooper JE, Satorius N . The Measurement and Classification of Psychiatric Illness. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, 1974.

    Google Scholar 

  9. Williams NM, Rees MI, Holmans P, Norton N, Cardno AG, Jones LA et al. A two-stage genome scan for schizophrenia susceptibility genes in 196 affected sibling pairs. Hum Mol Genet 1999; 8: 1729–1739.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  10. Chen X, Levine L, Kwok P-Y . Fluorescence polarization in homogenous nucleic acid analysis. Genome Res 1999; 9: 492–498.

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  11. Zhao J, Curtis D, Sham PC . Model-free analysis and permutation tests for allelic associations. Hum Hered 2000; 50: 133–139.

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  12. Xie X, Ott J . Testing linkage disequilibrium between a disease gene and marker loci. Am J Hum Genet 1993; 53: 1107.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to M C O'Donovan or M J Owen.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Williams, N., Preece, A., Spurlock, G. et al. Support for genetic variation in neuregulin 1 and susceptibility to schizophrenia. Mol Psychiatry 8, 485–487 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001348

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Revised:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.mp.4001348

Keywords

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links