Epistasis between the DAT 3' UTR VNTR and the COMT Val158Met SNP on cortical function in healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia

• Published in: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS Vol. 106; no. 32; pp. 13600 - 13605
• Main Authors: Prata, Diana P, Mechelli, Andrea, Fu, Cynthia H.Y, Picchioni, Marco, Toulopoulou, Timothea, Bramon, Elvira, Walshe, Muriel, Murray, Robin M, Collier, David A, McGuire, Philip
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States National Academy of Sciences 11.08.2009; National Acad Sciences
• Subjects: 3' untranslated regions; 3' Untranslated Regions - genetics; alleles; analysis of variance; Biological Sciences; Brain; Brain Mapping; Case-Control Studies; catechol O-methyltransferase; Catechol O-Methyltransferase - genetics; Cerebral Cortex - enzymology; Cerebral Cortex - physiopathology; Cognition & reasoning; dopamine; Dopamine plasma membrane transport proteins; Dopamine Plasma Membrane Transport Proteins - genetics; epistasis; Epistasis, Genetic; Genes; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotypes; Health; Humans; Magnetic resonance imaging; Mental disorders; Methionine - genetics; Minisatellite repeats; Minisatellite Repeats - genetics; NMR; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oxygen; patients; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Prefrontal cortex; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - enzymology; Schizophrenia - genetics; Schizophrenia - physiopathology; single nucleotide polymorphism; Untranslated regions; Valine - genetics; Variance analysis; Verbal fluency

Dopamine has a crucial role in the modulation of neurocognitive function, and synaptic dopamine activity is normally regulated by the dopamine transporter (DAT) and catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT). Perturbed dopamine function is a key pathophysiological feature of schizophrenia. Our objectives w...