AUTHOR=Ding Lan , Styblo Miroslav , Drobná Zuzana , Hegde Ashok N. 

TITLE=Expression of the Longest RGS4 Splice Variant in the Prefrontal Cortex Is Associated with Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Schizophrenia Patients

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=7

YEAR=2016

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00026

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2016.00026

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p>The <italic>Regulator of G protein signaling 4</italic> (<italic>RGS4</italic>) gene is a candidate susceptibility gene for schizophrenia (SCZ). Previous studies showed that the mRNA level of the longest splice variant <italic>RGS4-1</italic> was decreased in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) of SCZ patients compared with healthy controls. In this pilot study, we examined the possible mechanisms of <italic>RGS4-1</italic> mRNA reduction in SCZ. We genotyped SNP1 (rs10917670), rs2661347, SNP4 (rs951436), SNP7 (rs951439), SNP18 (rs2661319), and rs10799897 (SNP9897) and tested the methylation status of CpG islands of the <italic>RGS4</italic> gene in the postmortem DLPFC samples obtained from subjects with SCZ and bipolar disorder as well as healthy controls. <italic>RGS4-1</italic> mRNA level was associated with five SNPs (SNP1, rs2661347, SNP4, SNP7, and SNP18) and their haplotypes but not with SNP9897. In addition, this study revealed that <italic>RGS4-1</italic> mRNA was low in subjects with specific genotypes of SNP1, rs2661347, SNP4, SNP7, and SNP18. Lower <italic>RGS4-1</italic> mRNA expression in the DLPFC of SCZ is associated with SNPs in the 5′ regulatory region of the <italic>RGS4</italic> gene but not with the methylation status of its CpG islands.</p>