Association study of DISC1 genetic variants with the risk of schizophrenia.

Our previous study confirmed that the 'AA' genotype carriers of DISC1 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs821616 had a significantly increased risk for schizophrenia (SCZ) in comparison with noncarriers. To further explore the relationship of DISC1 genetic variants with the risk of SCZ in Han Chinese, we designed the present two-step study. We sequenced the promoter and untranslated regions of the DISC1 gene using genomic DNA of 100 SCZ patients and identified 17 SNPs. All SNPs were then genotyped and analyzed through a case-control study with 1154 healthy controls and 1447 patients. In an association analysis, neither allelic nor genotypic modeling indicated a significant association between the risk of SCZ and all SNPs. In addition, we observed that a two-marker haplotype was nominally associated with protection for SCZ (P = 0.0476). The present findings, at least in part, provide some clues for further investigating the association of DISC1 variants with SCZ susceptibility.