Genome-wide association study of bipolar i disorder in the Han Chinese population

Abstract

We report the first genome-wide association study in 1000 bipolar I patients and 1000 controls, with a replication of the top hits in another 409 cases and 1000 controls in the Han Chinese population. Four regions with most strongly associated single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were detected, of which three were not found in previous GWA studies in the Caucasian populations. Among them, SNPs close to specificity protein 8 (SP8) and ST8 α-N-acetyl- neuraminide α-2,8-sialyltransferase (ST8SIA2) are associated with Bipolar I, with P-values of 4.87 × 10-7 (rs2709736) and 6.05 × 10-6 (rs8040009), respectively. We have also identified SNPs in potassium channel tetramerization domain containing 12 gene (KCTD12) (rs2073831, P9.74 × 10-6) and in CACNB2 (Calcium channel, voltage-dependent, Β-2 subunit) gene (rs11013860, P=5.15 × 10 -5), One SNP nearby the rs1938526 SNP of ANK3 gene and another SNP nearby the SNP rs11720452 in chromosome 3 reported in previous GWA studies also showed suggestive association in this study (P=6.55 × 10-5 and P=1.48 × 10-5, respectively). This may suggest that there are common and population-specific susceptibility genes for bipolar I disorder. © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited All rights reserved.