The purpose of this project is to find genes that impair cortical function and, in doing so, increase the risk for developing schizophrenia. The method to be used is the affected sibling pair paradigm. Abnormalities of cortical function appear to be core features of chronic schizophrenia. Cortical function of patients and their siblings will be quantified using functional MRI, MR Spectroscopy and neuropsychological testing. Results using these methods will be combined with genetic data to look for genes that affect brain function and increase susceptibility to schizophrenia. Carefully diagnosed probands will recruited from our existing in patient population of persons with chronic schizophrenia. Other probands are recruited through the media and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. Diagnosis of probands is established from previous psychiatric records and a structured diagnostic interview. Siblings and control subjects likewise are evaluated with a structured interview. All subjects give a blood sample for genetic analysis. Evaluation of cortical function is done using functional MRI and neuropsychological testing. These procedures have been chosen because it is already known that persons with schizophrenia demonstrate some abnormality compared to normal controls. We have recently shown that subsets of the siblings show one or more abnormal traits on these tests, thus suggesting that they are phenotypically similar to their ill sibling even though they do not evidence (at the time of testing) the full blown syndrome. This study and the method of genetic analysis is unique in that it does not use diagnosis as the identifying variable. Instead, we look at intermediate biological variables. We anticipate that this will increase the statistical power to find schizophrenia genes. Our initial results have been very promising in this regard. A specific gene on chromosome 22, called COMT, is important in regulating prefrontal dopamine metabolism and cognitive processes subserved by the prefrontal cortex. These cognitive processes, generically refered to as working memory and executive function, are impaired in patients with schizophrenia. We have recently shown that a variant of the COMT gene impairs working memory and executive function and, in doing so, slightly increases risk for developing schizophrenia.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Intramural Research (Z01)
Project #
1Z01MH002734-06
Application #
6541856
Study Section
(CBDB)
Project Start
Project End
Budget Start
Budget End
Support Year
6
Fiscal Year
2001
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
U.S. National Institute of Mental Health
Department
Type
DUNS #
City
State
Country
United States
Zip Code
Gothelf, Doron; Law, Amanda J; Frisch, Amos et al. (2014) Biological effects of COMT haplotypes and psychosis risk in 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. Biol Psychiatry 75:406-13
Sambataro, Fabio; Mattay, Venkata S; Thurin, Kristina et al. (2013) Altered cerebral response during cognitive control: a potential indicator of genetic liability for schizophrenia. Neuropsychopharmacology 38:846-53
Ye, Tianzhang; Lipska, Barbara K; Tao, Ran et al. (2012) Analysis of copy number variations in brain DNA from patients with schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders. Biol Psychiatry 72:651-4
Tost, Heike; Lipska, Barbara K; Vakkalanka, Radhakrishna et al. (2010) No effect of a common allelic variant in the reelin gene on intermediate phenotype measures of brain structure, brain function, and gene expression. Biol Psychiatry 68:105-7
Lemaitre, Herve; Mattay, Venkata S; Sambataro, Fabio et al. (2010) Genetic variation in FGF20 modulates hippocampal biology. J Neurosci 30:5992-7
Honea, Robyn; Verchinski, Beth A; Pezawas, Lukas et al. (2009) Impact of interacting functional variants in COMT on regional gray matter volume in human brain. Neuroimage 45:44-51
Goldman, Aaron L; Pezawas, Lukas; Mattay, Venkata S et al. (2009) Widespread reductions of cortical thickness in schizophrenia and spectrum disorders and evidence of heritability. Arch Gen Psychiatry 66:467-77
Murty, Vishnu P; Sambataro, Fabio; Das, Saumitra et al. (2009) Age-related alterations in simple declarative memory and the effect of negative stimulus valence. J Cogn Neurosci 21:1920-33
Blasi, Giuseppe; Popolizio, Teresa; Taurisano, Paolo et al. (2009) Changes in prefrontal and amygdala activity during olanzapine treatment in schizophrenia. Psychiatry Res 173:31-8
Di Giorgio, Annabella; Blasi, Giuseppe; Sambataro, Fabio et al. (2008) Association of the SerCys DISC1 polymorphism with human hippocampal formation gray matter and function during memory encoding. Eur J Neurosci 28:2129-36

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