A genetic variant in CAMKK2 gene is possibly associated with increased risk of bipolar disorder.

A recent large-scale study have reported that rs1063843, a single nucleotide polymorphism located in the CAMKK2 gene is highly associated with schizophrenia in European and Han Chinese populations. Increasing evidences show that schizophrenia and bipolar disorder have some common genetic variance. Here, we evaluated the association of this variant with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in Iranian population. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of 500 schizophrenic patients, 500 bipolar patients and 500 normal controls and all were genotyped for the rs1063843 using a PCR-RFLP method. The allele frequency of rs1063843 was significantly different in both schizophrenia and bipolar patients comparing to control group. For the first time, we showed that rs1063843 is highly associated with bipolar disorder, although more replication studies are needed to confirm our findings. Our results also support the findings of previous studies suggesting a significant association between rs1063843 and schizophrenia.

The analysis of association between SNCA, HUSEYO and CSMD1 gene variants and Parkinson's disease in Iranian population.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most prevalent neurodegenerative disorder. Both genetic and environmental factors are involved in the etiology of the disease. Many studies have revealed the susceptibility genes and variations for PD which need further confirmation. Here we evaluated the association of variations in SNCA, HUSEYO and CSMD1 genes with PD. A case-control study was conducted with 489 PD patients and 489 healthy controls. DNA was extracted from peripheral blood of all subjects and rs356220 and rs11931074 in SNCA, rs2338971 in HUSEYO and rs12681349 in CSMD1 were genotyped using PCR-RFLP method. The genotypes and allele frequencies were significantly different between case and control groups for rs356220, rs11931074 and rs2338971 but not for rs12681349. We provided further evidence that rs356220 is associated with increased risk of PD supporting previous studies in Caucasian-based and Japanese populations. The association of rs11931074 with decreased risk of PD was also significant. This study revealed the first evidence of the association of rs2338971 with increased risk of PD in the Iranian population. Nevertheless, these findings need further validation via more replication studies.

A Clinical and Molecular Genetic Study of 50 Families with Autosomal Recessive Parkinsonism Revealed Known and Novel Gene Mutations.

In this study, the role of known Parkinson's disease (PD) genes was examined in families with autosomal recessive (AR) parkinsonism to assist with the differential diagnosis of PD. Some families without mutations in known genes were also subject to whole genome sequencing with the objective to identify novel parkinsonism-related genes. Families were selected from 4000 clinical files of patients with PD or parkinsonism. AR inheritance pattern, consanguinity, and a minimum of two affected individuals per family were used as inclusion criteria. For disease gene/mutation identification, multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification, quantitative PCR, linkage, and Sanger and whole genome sequencing assays were carried out. A total of 116 patients (50 families) were examined. Fifty-four patients (46.55%; 22 families) were found to carry pathogenic mutations in known genes while a novel gene, not previously associated with parkinsonism, was found mutated in a single family (2 patients). Pathogenic mutations, including missense, nonsense, frameshift, and exon rearrangements, were found in Parkin, PINK1, DJ-1, SYNJ1, and VAC14 genes. In conclusion, variable phenotypic expressivity was seen across all families.