AUTHOR=Fu Xiaoqian , Wang Jun , Du Jianbin , Sun Jing , Baranova Ancha , Zhang Fuquan 

TITLE=BDNF Gene's Role in Schizophrenia: From Risk Allele to Methylation Implications

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Psychiatry

VOLUME=11

YEAR=2020

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychiatry/articles/10.3389/fpsyt.2020.564277

DOI=10.3389/fpsyt.2020.564277

ISSN=1664-0640

ABSTRACT=<p><bold>Background:</bold> Schizophrenia (SZ) is a severe chronic mental disorder with complex genetic mechanisms. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is one of promising candidate genes for SZ, and rs6265 is a non-synonymous single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in BDNF.</p><p><bold>Methods:</bold> In this study, we performed a case-control association study of rs6265 in a cohort of Han Chinese population from eastern China, including 1,407 SZ patients and 1,136 healthy controls; and carried out a cis-mQTL (Methylation Quantitative Trait Loci) analysis for BDNF rs6265.</p><p><bold>Results:</bold> We found a positive association of rs6265 with SZ (<italic>P</italic> = 0.037), with the minor allele (A) of rs6265 conferring a protecting effect for SZ (OR = 0.89). Furthermore, cis-mQTL analysis indicates that rs6265 is associated with several methylation loci surrounding BDNF.</p><p><bold>Conclusions:</bold> Together, our findings provide further evidence to support the involvement of BDNF gene in the genesis of SZ.</p>