Citation

De Luca V, Likhodi O, Kennedy JL, Wong AH. Am. J. Med. Genet. B Neuropsychiatr. Genet. 2007; 144(3): 370-374.

Affiliation

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2007, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1002/ajmg.b.30458

PMID

17221840

Abstract

The serotonin 2A (5-HT2A) receptor gene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of suicidal behavior by a genetic association between the 5-HT2A C102T silent polymorphism and suicidality in patients with major depression. However, a recent meta-analysis failed to confirm this association. We developed an improved quantitative assay for the measurement of allele-specific expression of the 5-HT2A gene, and find that the ratio of C/T allele expression in the pre-frontal cortex of heterozygous suicide victims (n = 10) was significantly decreased in comparison with the non-suicide group (n = 10) (P = 0.049). Because the 5-HT2A gene is subject to imprinting, the parent-of-origin may affect the inheritance of suicidal behavior. Thus we examined the parental origin of specific alleles for genetic association in a genetic family-based sample of major psychoses in which information on suicidal behavior was available. No association between the 5-HT2A C102T polymorphism and suicidal behavior in major psychoses was detected with the transmission/disequilibrium test (TDT).

Language: en