Candidate gene analysis of the human natural killer-1 carbohydrate pathway and perineuronal nets in schizophrenia: B3GAT2 Is associated with disease risk and cortical surface area

Anna K. Khler, Srdjan Djurovic, Lars M. Rimol, Andrew Anand Brown, Lavinia Athanasiu, Erik G. Jnsson, Thomas Hansen, Ómar Gstafsson, Hkan Hall, Ina Giegling, Pierandrea Muglia, Sven Cichon, Marcella Rietschel, Olli P.H. Pietilinen, Leena Peltonen, Elvira Bramon, David Collier, David St Clair, Engilbert Sigurdsson, Hannes PeturssonDan Rujescu, Ingrid Melle, Thomas Werge, Vidar M. Steen, Anders M. Dale, Russell T. Matthews, Ingrid Agartz, Ole A. Andreassen

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Background The Human Natural Killer-1 carbohydrate (HNK-1) is involved in neurodevelopment and synaptic plasticity. Extracellular matrix structures called perineuronal nets, condensed around subsets of neurons and proximal dendrites during brain maturation, regulate synaptic transmission and plasticity. Methods Ten genes of importance for HNK-1 biosynthesis (B3GAT1, B3GAT2, and CHST10) or for the formation of perineuronal nets (TNR, BCAN, NCAN, HAPLN1, HAPLN2, HAPLN3, and HAPLN4) were investigated for potential involvement in schizophrenia (SCZ) susceptibility, by genotyping 104 tagSNPs in the Scandinavian Collaboration on Psychiatric Etiology sample (849 cases; 1602 control subjects). Genome-wide association study imputation data from the European SGENE-plus sample (2663 cases; 13,498 control subjects) were used for comparison. The effect of SCZ risk alleles on brain structure was investigated in a Norwegian subset (98 cases; 177 control subjects) with structural magnetic resonance imaging data. Results Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), located in two adjacent estimated linkage disequilibrium blocks in the first intron of β-1,3- glucuronyltransferase 2 (B3GAT2), were nominally associated with SCZ (.004 ≤ P empirical ≤ .05). The rs2460691 was significantly associated in the comparison sample and in the meta-analysis after correction for all 121 SNP/haplotype tests (P raw = 1 × 10 -4; P corrected = .018). Increased dosage of the rs2460691 SCZ risk allele was associated with decreased cortical area (p = .002) but not thickness or hippocampal volume. A second SNP (r 2 = .24 with rs10945275), which conferred the highest SCZ risk effect in the Norwegian subset, was also associated with cortical area. Conclusions The present results suggest that effects on biosynthesis of the neuronal epitope HNK-1, through common B3GAT2 variation, could increase the risk of SCZ, possibly by decreasing cortical area.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)90-96
Number of pages7
JournalBiological Psychiatry
Volume69
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2011

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: The study was supported by grants from: the Sigurd K. Thoresen's foundation (Number 2436 ), the Research Council of Norway (Number 167153/V50 , Number 163070/V50 , Number 175345/V50 ), Eastern and Western Norway Health Authority (Number 2004-123 ), Ullevål University Hospital and the University of Oslo to support the Thematically Organized Psychosis Study group and the Bergen group; the HøjteknologiFonden , the Danish National Psychiatric Research Foundation , and the Danish Medical Research Council , the Lundbeck Foundation ; and the Wallenberg Foundation , the HUBIN project , and the Swedish Research Council ( K2007-62X-15078-04-1 , K2007-62X-15078-04-3 , K2008-62P-20597-01-3 ). This work was also supported by the National Genomic Network (NGFN-2 and NGFN-MooDS) of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). We thank patients and control subjects for their participation in the study and the health professionals who facilitated our work. We also wish to thank Knut-Erik Gylder, Marie J Skogstad, Thomas Bjella, Eivind Bakken, and Bente G. Bennike, for skilful technical and administrative assistance. We would like to thank DeCODE Genetics for providing access to the Icelandic replication sample. We thank David Goldstein and GlaxoSmithKline for genotyping additional samples from Munich and Aberdeen. We are grateful to K.-H. Jöckel and R. Erbel for providing control individuals from the Heinz Nixdorf Recall Study. Coauthor Professor Leena Peltonen sadly passed away in March 2010.

Other keywords

  • Association study
  • B3GAT1
  • GlcAT-P
  • GlcAT-S
  • MRI
  • Psychosis

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