Citation

Hasegawa M, Tanifuji T, Okazaki S, Otsuka I, Shirai T, Shindo R, Horai T, Mouri K, Takahashi M, Kondo T, Ueno Y, Hishimoto A. Neuropsychopharmacol. Rep. 2023; ePub(ePub): ePub.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/npr2.12344

PMID

37202909

Abstract

BACKGROUND: One potential cause of suicide is serotonergic dysfunction. Sex differences have been reported to modulate the effects of serotonergic polymorphisms. Monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) is an enzyme that degrades serotonin and is located on the X chromosome. A previous study indicated that the upstream (u) variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) in the MAOA gene promoter may be associated with suicide. However, a meta-analysis showed that this polymorphism may not be related to suicide. According to a recent study, compared with the uVNTR, the distal (d)VNTR and the haplotypes of the two VNTRs modulate MAOA expression.

METHODS: We examined the two VNTRs in the MAOA gene promoter in 1007 subjects who committed suicide and 844 healthy controls. We analyzed the two VNTRs using fluorescence-based polymerase chain reaction assays. We conducted a meta-analysis for the two VNTRs to update it.

RESULTS: Our results demonstrated that neither the genotype-based associations nor allele/haplotype frequencies of the two VNTRs were significantly associated with suicide. In the meta-analysis, we did not indicate relationships between uVNTR and suicide nor did we identify articles analyzing dVNTR in suicide.

CONCLUSION: Overall, we did not find a relationship between the two VNTRs in the MAOA promoter and suicide completion; thus, warranting further studies are required.

Language: en

Keywords

genetics: human; monoamine oxidase A; suicide: basic/clinical; variable number of tandem repeats