We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
To save content items to your account,
please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies.
If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account.
Find out more about saving content to .
To save content items to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org
is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings
on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part
of your Kindle email address below.
Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations.
‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi.
‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder
(MDD) are likely to be caused by multiple susceptibility genes, each with
small effects in increasing the risk of illness. Identifying DNA variants
associated with schizophrenia and MDD is a crucial step in understanding
the pathophysiology of these disorders.
Aims
To investigate whether the SP4 gene plays a significant
role in schizophrenia or MDD in the Han Chinese population.
Method
We focused on nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring the
SP4 gene and carried out case–control studies in 1235
patients with schizophrenia, 1045 patients with MDD and 1235 healthy
controls recruited from the Han Chinese population.
Results
We found that rs40245 was significantly associated with schizophrenia in
both allele and genotype distributions (Pallele = 0.0005, Pallele = 0.004 after Bonferroni correction; Pgenotype = 0.0023, Pgenotype = 0.0184 after Bonferroni correction). The rs6461563
SNP was significantly associated with schizophrenia in the allele
distributions (Pallele = 0.0033, Pallele = 0.0264 after Bonferroni correction).
Conclusions
Our results suggest that common risk factors in the SP4
gene are associated with schizophrenia, although not with MDD, in the Han
Chinese population.
A large schizophrenia genome-wide association study (GWAS) and a
subsequent extensive replication study of individuals of European
ancestry identified eight new loci with genome-wide significance and
suggested that the MIR137-mediated pathway plays a role
in the predisposition for schizophrenia.
Aims
To validate the above findings in a Han Chinese population.
Method
We analysed the single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the newly
identified schizophrenia candidate loci and predicted
MIR137 target genes based on our published Han
Chinese populations (BIOX) GWAS data. We then analysed 18 SNPs from the
candidate regions in an independent cohort that consisted of 3585
patients with schizophrenia and 5496 controls of Han Chinese
ancestry.
Results
We replicated the associations of five markers
(P<0.05), including three that were located in the
predicted MIR137 target genes. Two loci
(ITIH3/4: rs2239547, P
=1.17×10–10 and CALN1: rs2944829,
P=9.97×10–9) exhibited genome-wide
significance in the Han Chinese population.
Conclusions
The ITIH3/4 locus has been reported to be of genome-wide
significance in the European population. The successful replication of
this finding in a different ethnic group provides stronger evidence for
the association between schizophrenia and ITIH3/4. We
detected the first genome-wide significant association of schizophrenia
with CALN1, which is a predicted target of
MIR137, and thus provide new evidence for the
associations between MIR137 targets and
schizophrenia.
Common psychiatric disorders are highly heritable, indicating that genetic factors play an important role in their aetiology. The CACNA1C gene, which codes for subunit alpha-1C of the Cav1.2 voltage-dependent L-type calcium channel, has been consistently found to be the shared risk gene for several kinds of mental disorder.
Aims
To investigate whether CACNA1C is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.
Method
We carried out a case–control study of 1235 patients with schizophrenia, 1045 with major depressive disorder and 1235 healthy controls. A tag single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1006737 along with another 10 tag SNPs in the CACNA1C gene were genotyped in all samples.
Results
We found that rs1006737 was associated with both schizophrenia (Pallele = 0.0014, Pgenotype = 0.006, odds ratio (OR) = 1.384, 95% CI 1.134–1.690) and major depressive disorder (Pallele = 0.0007, Pgenotype = 0.003, OR = 1.425, 95% CI 1.160–1.752).
Conclusions
Our findings support CACNA1C being a risk gene for both schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.
To evaluate the validity of fruit and vegetable intakes as it relates to plasma carotenoid and vitamin C concentrations in Chinese women, using three classification schemes.
Design
Intakes were calculated using an interviewer-administered FFQ. Fruits and vegetables, botanical groups and high-nutrient groups were evaluated. These three classification schemes were compared with plasma carotenoid and vitamin C concentrations from blood samples collected within 1 week of questionnaire completion.
Setting
Shanghai, China.
Subjects
Participants (n 2031) comprised women who had participated in a case–control study of diet and breast-related diseases nested within a randomized trial of breast self-examination among textile workers (n 266 064)
Results
Fruit intake was significantly (P < 0·05) and positively associated with plasma concentrations of α-tocopherol, β-cryptoxanthin, lycopene, α-carotene, β-carotene, retinyl palmitate and vitamin C. Fruit intake was inversely associated with γ-tocopherol and lutein + zeaxanthin concentrations. Vegetable consumption was significantly and positively associated with γ-tocopherol and β-cryptoxanthin concentrations. Each botanical and high-nutrient group was also significantly associated with particular plasma nutrient concentrations. Fruit and vegetable intakes and most plasma nutrient concentrations were significantly associated with season of interview.
Conclusions
These results suggest that the manner in which fruits and vegetables are grouped leads to different plasma nutrient exposure information, which may be an important consideration when testing and generating hypotheses regarding disease risk in relation to diet. Interview season should be considered when evaluating the associations of reported intake and plasma nutrients with disease outcomes.
Recommend this
Email your librarian or administrator to recommend adding this to your organisation's collection.