ULK4 Genetic Variants Have Pleiotropic Effect on Risk of Autism, Associated with Brain mRNA Expression and Antipsychotic Treatment Response

Abstract

Background: ULK4 genetic variants have been implicated for adult-onset psychiatric disorders, and common variants are associated with hematologic and cardiologic disorders at genome-wide significance. This study aimed to examine the pleiotropic effect of ULK4 on the risk of autism, cis-association with mRNA and impact on antipsychotic treatment response in humans. Methods: The clinical genetic data comprised one cohort of autism caseparent triad sample in the Han Chinese and three cohorts of family-based samples in the European ancestry, from Autism Genetic Research Exchange, the Autism Genome Project and the Simons Foundation for Autism Research Initiative; mRNA expression in postmortem human prefrontal cortex across the lifespan and different brain regions of postmortem human brain and other tissues from two independent datasets were used for examining the cis-association with ULK4 variants. Antipsychotic treatment response data were from the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials in Intervention Effectiveness in patients with chronic schizophrenia. Transmission disequilibrium test was used to examine the genetic association with autism. General linear regression analysis was