Association Study Between the Pericentrin (PCNT) Gene and Schizophrenia

Abstract

Disrupted-in-schizophrenia 1 (DISC1), a known genetic risk factor for schizophrenia (SZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD), interacts with several proteins and some of them are reported to be genetically associated with SZ. Pericentrin (PCNT) also interacts with DISC1 and recently single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within the PCNT gene have been found to show significant associations with SZ and MDD. In this study, case-controlled association analysis was performed to determine if the PCNT gene is implicated in SZ. Nine SNPs were analyzed in 1,477 individuals (726 patients with SZ and 751 healthy controls). No significant difference was observed between the controls and the patients in allelic frequencies or genotypic distributions of eight SNPs. Although allelic distribution of rs11702684 was different between the two groups (P = 0.042), the difference did not reach statistical significance after permutation correction for multiple comparisons. In the haplotypic analysis, we could not find any significant association in our subjects, either. This gene may not play a major role independently in the etiology of SZ in the Japanese population.

Primary Cilia as a Possible Link between Left-Right Asymmetry and Neurodevelopmental Diseases

“…However, the same team found significant allelic and genotypic associations of PCNT with schizophrenia in a Japanese population [ 117 ]. Differences in allelic frequencies or genotypic distributions of PCNT SNPs, between controls and schizophrenia patients, however, were not found in other studies [ 118 ]. Nevertheless, it was established that mutations in the pcnt lead to abnormal interneuron migration in the murine olfactory bulb, whereas schizophrenia is known to be accompanied by reduced olfactory bulb volume [ 61 ].…”

PCM1 is necessary for focal ciliary integrity and is a candidate for severe schizophrenia

“…For instance, common alleles near the known ciliopathyencoding locus SDCCAG8 have been reported in case-control association studies and have reached genome-wide significance 2,4 . Locus-specific analyses have shown association with ciliary and centriolar loci including AHI1 5 , NUDEL 6 , PCNT 7 , and PCM1 8 . This observation is unsurprising, since ablation of ciliary and centriolar proteins in the mouse causes significant neurogenesis and behavioral phenotypes.…”