Genetic risk between the CACNA1I gene and schizophrenia in Chinese Uygur population.

BACKGROUND: Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common mental disorder with high heritability, and genetic factors play a major role in the pathogenesis. Recent researches indicated that the CACNA1I involved in calcium channels probably affect the potential pathogenesis of SCZ. RESULTS: In this study, we attempted to investigate whether the CACNA1I gene contributes the risk to SCZ in the Uighur Chinese population, and performed a case-control study involving 985 patient samples and 1218 normal controls to analyze nine SNPs within the CACNA1I gene. Among these sites, six SNPs were significantly associated with SCZ in the allele distribution: rs132575 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.039, OR = 1.159), rs713860 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.039, OR = 0.792), rs738168 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.039, OR = 0.785), rs136805 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.014, OR = 1.212), rs5757760 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.042, OR = 0.873) and rs5750871 (adjusted Pallele  = 0.039, OR = 0.859). In addition, two SNPs turned to be risk factors for SCZ not only in the allele distribution, but also in the genotype distribution: rs132575 (adjusted Pgenotype  = 0.037) and rs136805 (adjusted Pgenotype  = 0.037). CONCLUSIONS: Overall, the present study provided evidence that significant association exists between the CACNA1I gene and SCZ in the Uighur Chinese population, subsequent validation of functional analysis and genetic association studies are needed to further extend this study.

Noninvasive fetal trisomy detection by multiplexed semiconductor sequencing: a barcoding analysis strategy.

Noninvasive prenatal detection of fetal chromosomal aneuploidies by high-throughput next-generation sequencing proves to be accurate and sensitive. Currently, most of the data analysis methods involve a Z-score test based on the reference distribution of at least dozens of normal samples. This is not only costly but also time consuming. Moreover, as the experimental condition varies between every single run, noises cannot be eliminated and will skew the results. In order to overcome these drawbacks, we have proposed a new analytical strategy based on the multiplex barcoding sequencing of both normal and unknown samples in a single run on Ion Torrent PGM. In this method, only one normal sample is required. By applying this method to 13 single runs with a total number of 44 samples, we achieved the sensitivity and specificity of 100 and 95.181% for T13 detection, 100 and 100% for T18 detection, 90 and 100% for T21 detection, respectively.

Role played by the SP4 gene in schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: Psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and major depressive disorder (MDD) are likely to be caused by multiple susceptibility genes, each with small effects in increasing the risk of illness. Identifying DNA variants associated with schizophrenia and MDD is a crucial step in understanding the pathophysiology of these disorders. AIMS: To investigate whether the SP4 gene plays a significant role in schizophrenia or MDD in the Han Chinese population. METHOD: We focused on nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring the SP4 gene and carried out case-control studies in 1235 patients with schizophrenia, 1045 patients with MDD and 1235 healthy controls recruited from the Han Chinese population. RESULTS: We found that rs40245 was significantly associated with schizophrenia in both allele and genotype distributions (Pallele = 0.0005, Pallele = 0.004 after Bonferroni correction; Pgenotype = 0.0023, Pgenotype = 0.0184 after Bonferroni correction). The rs6461563 SNP was significantly associated with schizophrenia in the allele distributions (Pallele = 0.0033, Pallele = 0.0264 after Bonferroni correction). CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that common risk factors in the SP4 gene are associated with schizophrenia, although not with MDD, in the Han Chinese population.

Common variants in QPCT gene confer risk of schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a common and severe mental disorder, its etiology has not been elucidated completely. In one previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of SCZ in the Caucasian population, the QPCT has been reported as susceptible gene for SCZ. The QPCT gene encodes Glutaminyl cyclase (QC), an enzyme which is involved in the post translational modification by converting N-terminal glutamate of protein to pyroglutamate, which is resistant to protease degradation, more hydrophobic, and prone to aggregation and neurotoxic. To further investigate the role of this gene in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population, we conducted this study in 1,248 (Mean age ± S.D, 36.44 years ± 9.0) SCZ cases, 1,248 (Mean age ± S.D, 30.62 years ± 11.35) healthy control samples for a case control study. We genotyped six SNPs in this study, including one positive SNP of the previous study, using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform. We found that rs2373000 was significantly associated with SCZ before correction [rs2373000: P allele = 0.016, χ(2) = 5.784, OR [95%CI] = 0.861 [0.762-0.972], P genotype = 0.018, χ(2) = 0.069]. After permutation correction for multiple testing, rs2373000 [rs2373000: P Allele corrected = 0.063, P genotype corrected = 0.069] showed marginal association with SCZ. Additionally, one pathogenic haplotype (TGT) containing rs2373000 was also significantly associated with SCZ. Our results are consistent with the findings of previous study and the genetic risk of QPCT gene for SCZ also exists in the Han Chinese population.

Genetic association between NRG1 and schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder in Han Chinese population.

Schizophrenia, major depressive disorder, and bipolar disorder are three major psychiatric disorders affecting around 0.66%, 3.3%, and 1.5% of the Han Chinese population respectively. Several genetic linkage analyses and genome wide association studies identified NRG1 as a susceptibility gene of schizophrenia, which was validated by its role in neurodevelopment, glutamate, and other neurotransmitter receptor expression regulation. To further investigate whether NRG1 is a shared risk gene for major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder as well as schizophrenia, we performed an association study among 1,248 schizophrenia cases, 1,056 major depression cases, 1,344 bipolar disorder cases, and 1,248 controls. Totally 15 tag SNPs were genotyped and analyzed, and no population stratification was found in our sample set. Among the sites, rs4236710 (corrected Pgenotye = 0.015) and rs4512342 (Pallele = 0.03, Pgenotye = 0.045 after correction) were associated with schizophrenia, and rs2919375 (corrected Pgenotye = 0.004) was associated with major depressive disorder. The haplotype rs4512342-rs6982890 showed association with schizophrenia (P = 0.03 for haplotype "TC" after correction), and haplotype rs4531002-rs11989919 proved to be a shared risk factor for both major depressive disorder ("CC": corrected P = 0.009) and bipolar disorder ("CT": corrected P = 0.003). Our results confirmed that NRG1 was a shared common susceptibility gene for major mental disorders in Han Chinese population.

Polymorphisms in GCKR, SLC17A1 and SLC22A12 were associated with phenotype gout in Han Chinese males: a case-control study.

BACKGROUND: Gout is a common arthritic disease resulting from elevated serum uric acid (SUA) level. A large meta-analysis including 28,141 individuals identified nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) associated with altered SUA level in a Caucasian population. However, raised SUA level alone is not sufficient for the development of gout arthritis and most of these SNPs have not been studied in a Han Chinese population. Here, we performed a case-control association analysis to investigate the relationship between these SUA correlated SNPs and gout arthritis in Han Chinese. METHODS: A total of 622 ascertained gout p9atients and 917 healthy controls were genotyped. Genome-wide significant SNPs, rs12129861, rs780094, rs734553, rs742132, rs1183201, rs12356193, rs17300741 and rs505802 in the previous SUA study, were selected for our analysis. RESULTS: No deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium was observed either in the case or control cohorts (corrected p > 0.05). Three SNPs, rs780094 (located in GCKR, corrected p = 1.78E(-4), OR = 0.723), rs1183201 (located in SLC17A1, corrected p = 1.39E(-7), OR = 0.572) and rs505802 (located in SLC22A12, corrected p = 0.007, OR = 0.747), were significantly associated with gout on allelic level independent of potential cofounding traits. While the remaining SNPs were not replicated. We also found significant associations of uric acid concentrations with these three SNPs (rs780094 in GCKR, corrected p = 3.94E(-5); rs1183201 in SLC17A1, corrected p = 0.005; rs505802 in SLC22A12, corrected p = 0.003) and of triglycerides with rs780094 (located in GCKR, corrected p = 2.96E(-4)). Unfortunately, SNP-SNP interactions for these three significant SNPs were not detected (rs780094 vs rs1183201, p = 0.402; rs780094 vs rs505802, p = 0.434; rs1183201 vs rs505802, p = 0.143). CONCLUSIONS: Three SUA correlated SNPs in Caucasian population, rs780094 in GCKR, rs1183201 in SLC17A1 and rs505802 in SLC22A12 were confirmed to be associated with gout arthritis and uric acid concentrations in Han Chinese males. Considering genetic differences among populations and complicated pathogenesis of gout arthritis, more validating tests in independent populations and relevant functional experiments are suggested in future.

GWAS identifies novel susceptibility loci on 6p21.32 and 21q21.3 for hepatocellular carcinoma in chronic hepatitis B virus carriers.

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have recently identified KIF1B as susceptibility locus for hepatitis B virus (HBV)-related hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). To further identify novel susceptibility loci associated with HBV-related HCC and replicate the previously reported association, we performed a large three-stage GWAS in the Han Chinese population. 523,663 autosomal SNPs in 1,538 HBV-positive HCC patients and 1,465 chronic HBV carriers were genotyped for the discovery stage. Top candidate SNPs were genotyped in the initial validation samples of 2,112 HBV-positive HCC cases and 2,208 HBV carriers and then in the second validation samples of 1,021 cases and 1,491 HBV carriers. We discovered two novel associations at rs9272105 (HLA-DQA1/DRB1) on 6p21.32 (OR = 1.30, P = 1.13×10⁻¹9) and rs455804 (GRIK1) on 21q21.3 (OR = 0.84, P = 1.86×10⁻8), which were further replicated in the fourth independent sample of 1,298 cases and 1,026 controls (rs9272105: OR = 1.25, P = 1.71×10⁻4; rs455804: OR = 0.84, P = 6.92×10⁻³). We also revealed the associations of HLA-DRB1*0405 and 0901*0602, which could partially account for the association at rs9272105. The association at rs455804 implicates GRIK1 as a novel susceptibility gene for HBV-related HCC, suggesting the involvement of glutamate signaling in the development of HBV-related HCC.

Genetic association of ACSM1 variation with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.

Schizophrenia (SCZ) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are two of the most common and severe mental disorders, the etiologies of which are not yet clearly elucidated. The ACSM1 gene has been identified as a susceptibility gene for SCZ in two previous genome-wide association studies (GWAS). ACSM1 catalyzes the activation of fatty acids and plays an important role in the metabolic system. Some evidence has suggested that ACSM1 contributes to a genetic risk for MDD. The present study aimed to evaluate the common genetic risk of the ACSM1 gene in these two disorders in the Han Chinese population. In total, 1235 patients with SCZ, 1045 patients with MDD and 1235 control subjects of Chinese origin were recruited. Six single nuclear polymorphisms (SNPs) in ACSM1 were genotyped to test their associations with SCZ and MDD. SNP rs163234 was found to be significantly associated with both SCZ (permutated Pallele=1.700×10(-3), OR=1.350 [95% CI=1.152-1.581]) and MDD (permutated Pallele=4.800×10(-3), OR=1.329 [95% CI=1.127-1.567]). SNP rs433598 showed a strong association with SCZ (permutated Pallele=4.300×10(-3), OR=1.303 [95% CI=1.117-1.520]). Haplotype analysis of the blocks containing the two positive markers also revealed a significant association. This is the first study to assess the possible association of the ACSM1 gene with a genetic susceptibility for MDD. Our data are the first to suggest a positive association of the ACSM1 gene with a genetic susceptibility for SCZ and MDD in the Han Chinese population.

Association study between polymorphisms of PRMT6, PEX10, SOX5, and nonobstructive azoospermia in the Han Chinese population.

A previous genomewide association study of nonobstructive azoospermia (NOA) in the Han Chinese population identified three risk loci (rs12097821, rs2477686, and rs10842262) and provided strong evidence for a genetic influence in male infertility. However, recently, a follow-up study of these single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) loci in the Japanese population showed that none of them were significantly associated with NOA. Therefore, we conducted an association study, consisting of 550 NOA cases and 555 normal controls, to further validate whether the risk of those three SNPs still existed in an independent Han Chinese male population. The association studies did not support the association of rs12097821 and rs2477686 with NOA for both genotype and allele distributions, but rs10842262 in the SOX5 gene was significantly associated with NOA (chi square = 9.31; P = 0.0095 and chi square = 9.27; P = 0.0023, respectively). Our study provides genetic evidence for SOX5 polymorphism in NOA, contributing to predicting males at high risk of NOA in Han Chinese population. Considering genetic differences among populations, future validating studies in independent samples are suggested.

Comparison of the performance of Ion Torrent chips in noninvasive prenatal trisomy detection.

Semiconductor high-throughput sequencing, represented by Ion Torrent PGM/Proton, proves to be feasible in the noninvasive prenatal diagnosis of fetal aneuploidies. It is commendable that, with less data and relevant cost also, an accurate result can be achieved owing to the high sensitivity and specificity of such kind of technology. We conducted a comparative analysis of the performance of four different Ion chips in detecting fetal chromosomal aneuploidies. Eight maternal plasma DNA samples, including four pregnancies with normal fetuses and four with trisomy 21 fetuses, were sequenced on Ion Torrent 314/316/318/PI chips, respectively. Results such as read mapped ratio, correlation coefficient and phred quality score were calculated and parallelly compared. All samples were correctly classified even with low-throughput chip, and, among the four chips, the 316 chip had the highest read mapped ratio, correlation coefficient, mean read length and phred quality score. All chips were well consistent with each other. Our results showed that all Ion chips are applicable in noninvasive prenatal fetal aneuploidy diagnosis. We recommend researchers or clinicians to use the appropriate chip with barcoding technology on the basis of the sample number.

Common variants in the CDH7 gene are associated with major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.

Cadherin-7 (CDH7) gene encodes a calcium dependent cell-cell adhesion glycoprotein. Gene loci of cadherins family have been supposed to be involved in the pathogenesis of psychiatric disorders. Recent genome-wide association study also demonstrated that CDH7 was significant associated with bipolar disorder. Due to the fact that the same genetic risk factor can be shared by different kinds of psychiatric disorders, we examined whether CDH7 is also associated with major depressive disorder (MDD) in this study, with a large Han Chinese sample set. We carried out a 2-stage case-control study to examine the association between CDH7 and MDD in the Han Chinese population. Ten tag SNPs were genotyped using Taqman technology in 1,045 MDD patients and 1,520 healthy controls. Single-nucleotide polymorphisms with significance were additionally genotyped in another independent sample set with 576 MDD cases and 576 healthy controls. Among ten genotyped SNPs, rs1444067 and rs12605720 was found to be significantly associated with MDD (rs1444067: P(allele) = 0.00571, OR 0.830, 95 % CI 0.728-0.947; rs12605720: P(allele) = 0.00321, OR 1.245, 95 % CI 1.076-1.441). We successfully replicated these two SNPs association with independent sample sets (rs1444067: P(allele) = 0.00518; rs12605720: P(allele) = 0.0227). Finally we have combined these results by a meta-analysis (rs1444067: P(allele) = 0.000174, OR 0.817; rs12605720: P(allele) = 0.000199, OR 1.255). Our results support CDH7 to be a risk factor of MDD in the Han Chinese population. However, further studies with more markers and independent samples were suggested to validate our findings.

Association study of 15q14 and 15q25 with high myopia in the Han Chinese population.

BACKGROUND: Refractive errors and high myopia are the most common ocular disorders, and both of them are leading causes of blindness in the world. Recently, genetic association studies in European and Japanese population identified that common genetic variations located in 15q14 and 15q25 were associated with high myopia. To validate whether the same variations conferred risk to high myopia in the Han Chinese population, we genotyped 1,461 individuals (940 controls and 521 cases samples) recruited of Han Chinese origin. RESULT: We found rs8027411 in 15q25 (P = 0.012 after correction, OR = 0.78) was significantly associated with high myopia but rs634990 in 15q14 (P = 0.54 after correction), OR = 0.88) was not. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings supported that 15q25 is a susceptibility locus for high myopia, and gene RASGRF1 was possible to play a role in the pathology of high myopia.

SNX29, a new susceptibility gene shared with major mental disorders in Han Chinese population.

OBJECTIVES: Environmental and genetic factors play important roles in the development of schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar disorder (BPD) or major depressive disorder (MDD). Some risk loci are identified with shared genetic effects on major psychiatric disorders. To investigate whether SNX29 gene played a significant role in these psychiatric disorders in the Han Chinese population. METHODS: We focussed on 11 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) harbouring SNX29 gene and carried out case-control studies in patients with SCZ (n = 1248), BPD (n = 1344), or MDD (n = 1056), and 1248 healthy controls (HC) recruited from the Han Chinese population. We constructed weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) and extracted significant modules by R package. RESULTS: We found that rs3743592 was significantly associated with MDD and rs6498263 with BPD in both allele and genotype distributions. Before correction, rs3743592 showed allelic and genotypic significance with SCZ, rs6498263 showed allelic significance with SCZ. WGCNA identified top 10 modules of co-expressed genes. Gene Ontology (GO) and pathway analysis were used to examine the functions of SNX29, which revealed that SNX29 was involved in the regulation of a number of biological processes, such as TGF-beta, ErbB, and Wnt signalling pathway, etc. CONCLUSIONS: Our results supported common risk factors in SNX29 might share among these three mental disorders in the Han Chinese population.

Common variants in SATB2 are associated with schizophrenia in Uygur Chinese population.

OBJECTIVE: Schizophrenia is one of the most severe mental disorders and its etiology is supposed to be an interaction between genes and environmental factors. Previous genome-wide association studies of schizophrenia have reported multiple susceptibility loci including rs6704641 in the SATB2 gene. Recently, this locus was further confirmed as a genome-wide significant locus for association with schizophrenia by trans-ancestry meta-analysis of Han Chinese and Caucasian samples. However, there is no report of genetic analysis in Uygur Chinese population, which is considered to have a combined genetic background between eastern Asia and Caucasian. This study is aimed to explore whether SATB2 gene is significantly associated with schizophrenia in Uygur Chinese population, thus providing additional evidence for elucidating the role of SATB2 gene in schizophrenia. PARTICIPANTS AND METHODS: In this study, we performed a case-control analysis focusing on seven tag single nucleotide polymorphisms located in SATB2 gene among 985 patients with schizophrenia and 1218 healthy controls recruited from the Xinjiang Province of China. RESULTS: We found that rs6704641 was significantly associated with schizophrenia in both allelic and genotypic distributions (Pallele = 0.008, Pgenotype = 0.028 after correction). In addition, rs16831466 is significantly associated with schizophrenia in allelic distributions (corrected Pallele = 0.041). Besides, several haplotypes of single nucleotide polymorphism are significantly associated with schizophrenia too. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that SATB2 is also a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia in Uygur Chinese population, and subsequent functional experiments are necessary to reveal its role in the pathogenesis.

Genetic analysis of common variants in the ZNF804A gene with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder.

AIM/OBJECTIVES/BACKGROUND: ZNF804A has been investigated widely as a candidate susceptibility gene for mental disorders in individuals of different ethnicities. However, in the Han Chinese population, most studies of this gene have focused on associations of the common single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs1344706. METHODS: To investigate additional common variants within ZNF804A, we carried out a case-control study of 13 SNPs distributed across the whole gene, in 1330 schizophrenic patients, 1045 major depressive disorder patients, and 1235 normal controls. RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS: We found that rs12476147 (P=0.0078) was associated significantly with schizophrenia, but no SNPs showed statistically significant associations with major depressive disorder after Bonferroni correction. Moreover, we also found that haplotype block 2, which included rs12476147 and rs1344706, was associated significantly with schizophrenia and major depressive disorder. Nevertheless, we could not replicate the association of rs1344706 with schizophrenia. In conclusion, the common variant rs12476147 and the related haplotype block in ZNF804A were associated significantly with schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population.

Association between the variability of the ABCA13 gene and the risk of major depressive disorder and schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population.

OBJECTIVES: The ATP-binding cassette transporter superfamily is one of the largest membrane protein families, which is responsible for transportation of substances across the membranes by utilising energy. Some research has bridged the variations in ABCA13 with occurrence of psychiatric disorders. To investigate the overlapping risk conferred by ABCA13 for both major depressive disorder and schizophrenia, we analysed tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (tag SNPs). METHODS: We used TaqMan® technology to genotype 1045 major depressive disorder patients, 1235 schizophrenia patients and 1235 healthy controls of Han Chinese origin. RESULTS: We found that rs7789493 (Pallele = 7.23E-04, Pgenotype =.001) was associated with major depressive disorder, while rs17132388 (Pallele = 1.63E-04, Pgenotype = 7.50E-04) and rs6583476 (Pallele = 5.50E-04, Pgenotype =.002) showed statistically significant association with schizophrenia. CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that the ABCA13 gene may contain overlapping common genetic risk factors for both major depressive disorder and schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population. The study on variants conferring overlapping risk for multiple psychiatric disorders could be tangible pathogenesis support in clinical or diagnostic references.

Common variants predict recurrence after nonfamilial atrial fibrillation ablation in Chinese Han population.

BACKGROUND: Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified several loci associated with atrial fibrillation (AF) and have been reportedly associated with response to catheter ablation for AF in patients of European ancestry; however, associations between susceptibility loci and clinical recurrence of AF after catheter ablation have not been examined in Chinese Han populations. To the personalization of catheter ablation for AF, we examined whether these single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) can predict clinical outcomes after catheter ablation for AF in Chinese Han population. METHODS AND RESULTS: The association between 8 SNPs and AF was studied in 1418 AF patients and 1424 controls by the unconditional logistic regression analysis. The survival analyses were used to compare AT/AF recurrence differences among 438 AF patients, which were classified by the genotype of rs2200733. rs2200733 and rs6590357 were significantly associated with AF in Chinese Han population. In addition, rs2200733 was associated with clinical recurrence of AF after catheter ablation. In Kaplan-Meier survival analysis, the recurrence-free rates for AF with TT and with TC+CC were 35.5% and 61.9%, respectively (P=0.0009). In multivariate Cox regression analysis, rs2200733 was strong independent risk factor for recurrence. CONCLUSION: rs2200733 risk allele at the 4q25 predicted impaired clinical response to catheter ablation for AF in Chinese Han population. Our findings suggested rs2200733 polymorphism may be used as a clinical tool for selection of patients for AF catheter ablation.

Genome-wide association analysis identifies 30 new susceptibility loci for schizophrenia.

We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) with replication in 36,180 Chinese individuals and performed further transancestry meta-analyses with data from the Psychiatry Genomics Consortium (PGC2). Approximately 95% of the genome-wide significant (GWS) index alleles (or their proxies) from the PGC2 study were overrepresented in Chinese schizophrenia cases, including ∼50% that achieved nominal significance and ∼75% that continued to be GWS in the transancestry analysis. The Chinese-only analysis identified seven GWS loci; three of these also were GWS in the transancestry analyses, which identified 109 GWS loci, thus yielding a total of 113 GWS loci (30 novel) in at least one of these analyses. We observed improvements in the fine-mapping resolution at many susceptibility loci. Our results provide several lines of evidence supporting candidate genes at many loci and highlight some pathways for further research. Together, our findings provide novel insight into the genetic architecture and biological etiology of schizophrenia.

A new risk locus in the ZEB2 gene for schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population.

The ZEB2 gene encodes the Zinc Finger E-box binding protein. As a key regulator of epithelial mesenchymal differentiation, ZEB2 plays an important role in the pathogenesis of cancer, and its high level expression has been observed in glioma patients. Different mutations in this gene have been identified in patients with Mowat-Wilson syndrome. A previous genome-wide association study (GWAS) of schizophrenia conducted in Caucasians has shown a significant association of rs12991836, located near the ZEB2 gene, with schizophrenia. Thus, we conducted a case control study to further investigate whether this genomic region is also a susceptibility locus for schizophrenia in the Han Chinese population. In total, 1248 schizophrenia (SCZ) cases (mean age±S.D., 36.44±9.0years), 1344 bipolar disorder (BPD) cases (mean age±S.D., 34.84±11.44years), 1056 major depressive disorder (MDD) cases (mean age±S.D., 34.41±12.09years) and 1248 healthy control samples (mean age±S.D., 30.62±11.35years) were recruited. We genotyped 12 SNPs using the Sequenom MassARRAY platform in this study. We found that rs6755392 showed a significant association with SCZ (rs6755392: adjusted Pallele=0.016; adjusted Pgenotype=0.052; OR (95% CI)=1.201 (1.073~1.344)). Additionally, two haplotypes (TCTG, TCTA) were also significantly associated with SCZ. This is the first study claiming the association of the genetic risks of rs6755392 in the ZEB2 gene with schizophrenia.