Citation

Pandey GN, Rizavi HS, Zhang H, Bhaumik R, Ren X. Int. J. Neuropsychopharmacol. 2016; 19(8): e15.

Affiliation

University of Illinois at Chicago, Department of Psychiatry, Chicago, IL 60612, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2016, Cambridge University Press)

DOI

10.1093/ijnp/pyw015

PMID

26902949

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Recent study of genome-wide DNA methylation profiling in the postmortem brain of suicidal and non-suicidal subjects found that gene expression of spindle and kinetochore associated complex subunit 2 (SKA2) is decreased in the postmortem brain of suicide victims compared with non-suicidal, non-psychiatric control subjects.

METHODS: In order to determine if decreased SKA2 is specific to suicide and independent of diagnosis, we determined gene and protein expression of SKA2 in the prefrontal cortex (PFC) obtained from suicide victims (n= 52), non-suicidal psychiatric subjects (n= 27), and normal controls (n= 24). We determined gene expression by qPCR technique and protein expression by Western blot. The postmortem brain samples were obtained from the Maryland Psychiatric Research Center.

RESULTS: We found that protein and gene expression of SKA2 were significantly reduced in the PFC of suicide victims compared with normal control subjects and non-suicidal patients. We also found that SKA2 protein and gene expression in depressed suicide victims, schizophrenic suicide victims and suicide victims with substance abuse and/or conduct disorders were significantly decreased compared with normal control subjects and also with non-suicidal depressed or schizophrenic subjects.

CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that decreased gene and protein expression of SKA2 observed in the PFC of suicide victims is specific to suicide, as not observed in the brain of non-suicidal patients. It also indicates reduced SKA2 expression in suicide is independent of psychiatric diagnosis since it is observed in all diagnostic groups studied. Therefore, SKA2 may be a potential biomarker for suicide.

Language: en