Mill Jonathan, Tang Thomas, Kaminsky Zachary, Khare Tarang, Yazdanpanah Simin, Bouchard Luigi, Jia Peixin, Assadzadeh Abbas, Flanagan James, Schumacher Axel, Wang Sun-Chong, Petronis Arturas
Krembil Family Epigenetic Laboratory, Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 250 College Street, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1R8, Canada.
Am J Hum Genet. 2008 Mar;82(3):696-711. doi: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.01.008.
Epigenetic misregulation is consistent with various non-Mendelian features of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. To date, however, few studies have investigated the role of DNA methylation in major psychosis, and none have taken a genome-wide epigenomic approach. In this study we used CpG-island microarrays to identify DNA-methylation changes in the frontal cortex and germline associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. In the frontal cortex we find evidence for psychosis-associated DNA-methylation differences in numerous loci, including several involved in glutamatergic and GABAergic neurotransmission, brain development, and other processes functionally linked to disease etiology. DNA-methylation changes in a significant proportion of these loci correspond to reported changes of steady-state mRNA level associated with psychosis. Gene-ontology analysis highlighted epigenetic disruption to loci involved in mitochondrial function, brain development, and stress response. Methylome network analysis uncovered decreased epigenetic modularity in both the brain and the germline of affected individuals, suggesting that systemic epigenetic dysfunction may be associated with major psychosis. We also report evidence for a strong correlation between DNA methylation in the MEK1 gene promoter region and lifetime antipsychotic use in schizophrenia patients. Finally, we observe that frontal-cortex DNA methylation in the BDNF gene is correlated with genotype at a nearby nonsynonymous SNP that has been previously associated with major psychosis. Our data are consistent with the epigenetic theory of major psychosis and suggest that DNA-methylation changes are important to the etiology of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
表观遗传失调与精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的各种非孟德尔特征相符。然而,迄今为止,很少有研究调查DNA甲基化在主要精神病中的作用,而且尚无研究采用全基因组表观基因组方法。在本研究中,我们使用CpG岛微阵列来识别与精神分裂症和双相情感障碍相关的额叶皮质和生殖系中的DNA甲基化变化。在额叶皮质中,我们发现众多基因座存在与精神病相关的DNA甲基化差异的证据,包括几个参与谷氨酸能和γ-氨基丁酸能神经传递、大脑发育以及其他与疾病病因在功能上相关的过程的基因座。这些基因座中很大一部分的DNA甲基化变化与报道的与精神病相关的稳态mRNA水平变化相对应。基因本体分析突出了与线粒体功能、大脑发育和应激反应相关的基因座的表观遗传破坏。甲基化组网络分析发现,受影响个体的大脑和生殖系中的表观遗传模块性均降低,这表明全身性表观遗传功能障碍可能与主要精神病有关。我们还报告了精神分裂症患者MEK1基因启动子区域的DNA甲基化与终生抗精神病药物使用之间存在强相关性的证据。最后,我们观察到BDNF基因的额叶皮质DNA甲基化与附近一个先前与主要精神病相关的非同义单核苷酸多态性的基因型相关。我们的数据与主要精神病的表观遗传理论一致,并表明DNA甲基化变化对精神分裂症和双相情感障碍的病因学很重要。