ANK3 and ZNF804A intronic variants increase risk of schizophrenia in Iranian population: An association study

Background: Schizophrenia is a multifactorial psychiatric disorder with unknown etiology and prevalence of around 1% worldwide. ANK3 and ZNF804A are two most related genes with Schizophrenia and many psychiatric related phenotypes. Several studies have revealed the association of Schizophrenia with two intronic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs10761482 and rs7597593 lies within ANK3 and ZNF804A introns in several populations. But it wasn't confirmed in Iranian population up to now. Here, we aimed to explore the association of rs10761482 and rs7597593 with Schizophrenia in Iranian population. Methods: We genotyped 154 Schizophrenic patients and 154 healthy controls both with Iranian descent for rs10761482 and rs7597593 using ARMS-PCR. Genotypic frequency distribution, Odds Ratios, and Logistic regression were performed for statistical analysis. Results: Our results indicate that carrying T allele in both rs7597593 and rs10761482 is associated with Schizophrenia (rs10761482: p-valueChi-square = 0.007, OR(SCZ/control) = 1.943195/rs7597593: p-valueChi-squared = 5.736 x 10(-9), OR(SCZ/control) = 4.088313) and increases the risk of schizophrenia incidence in Iranian population (p-valuers759793 = 1.80 x 10(-11), p-valuers10761482 = 6.09 x 10(-5)). Besides, affected males show more homozygosity in comparison with female patients (p-valueChi-squared = 0.03046, OR(male/female) = 2.203385). Conclusion: Our results confirmed that rs10761482 and rs7597593 significantly associated with schizophrenia in Iranian population and increase risk of the disease. Besides, we observed that rs10761482 and rs7597593 both increase the risk of Schizophrenia in our sample and with regard to their strong association, they could be a potential biomarker for predicting the risk of Schizophrenia in Iranian descent.

Automated summary

The study confirmed the significant association of rs10761482 and rs7597593 with schizophrenia in the Iranian population, increasing the risk of the disease. Male patients exhibited more homozygosity compared to females, indicating potential gender differences in genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia.