Association analysis of PALB2 and BRCA2 in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in a scandinavian case-control sample.

Tesli M, Athanasiu L, Mattingsdal M, Kähler AK, Gustafsson O, Andreassen BK, Werge T, Hansen T, Mors O, Mellerup E, Koefoed P, Jönsson EG, Agartz I, Melle I, Morken G, Djurovic S, Andreassen OA

Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 153B (7) 1276-1282 [2010-10-05; online 2010-09-28]

A recent genome-wide association study (GWAS) found significant association between the PALB2 SNP rs420259 and bipolar disorder (BD). The intracellular functions of the expressed proteins from the breast cancer risk genes PALB2 and BRCA2 are closely related. Therefore, we investigated the relation between genetic variants in PALB2 and BRCA2 and BD. Due to increasing evidence of genetic overlap between BD and schizophrenia (SCZ), we also investigated association with SCZ. In a Scandinavian case-control sample (n = 686/2,538) we found the BRCA2 SNP rs9567552 to be significantly associated with BD (Nominal P = 0.00043). Additionally, we replicated the association between PALB2 SNP rs420259 and BD (Nominal P = 0.025). We then combined our sample with another Nordic case-control sample (n = 435/11,491) from Iceland, and added results from the Wellcome Trust Case Control Consortium (WTCCC) (n = 1,868/2,938) and the STEP-UCL/ED-DUB-STEP2 study (n = 2,558/3,274) in a meta-analysis which revealed a P-value of 1.2 × 10(-5) for association between PALB2 SNP rs420259 and BD (n = 5,547/20,241). Neither the PALB2 SNP rs420259 nor the BRCA2 SNP rs9567552 were nominally significantly associated with the SCZ phenotype in our Scandinavian sample (n = 781/2,839). Our findings support PALB2 and BRCA2 as risk genes specifically for BD, and suggest that altered DNA repair related to neurogenesis may be involved in BD pathophysiology. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

NGI Uppsala (SNP&SEQ Technology Platform)

National Genomics Infrastructure

PubMed 20872766

DOI 10.1002/ajmg.b.31098

Crossref 10.1002/ajmg.b.31098