Association study ofSNAP25and schizophrenia in Irish family and case-control samples

Abstract

SNAP25 occurs on chromosome 20p12.2, which has been linked to schizophrenia in some samples, and recently linked to latent classes of psychotic illness in our sample. SNAP25 is crucial to synaptic functioning, may be involved in axonal growth and dendritic sprouting, and its expression may be decreased in schizophrenia. We genotyped 18 haplotype‐tagging SNPs in SNAP25 in a sample of 270 Irish high‐density families. Single marker and haplotype analyses were performed in FBAT and PDT. We adjusted for multiple testing by computing q values. Association was followed up in an independent sample of 657 cases and 411 controls. We tested for allelic effects on the clinical phenotype by using the method of sequential addition and 5 factor‐derived scores of the OPCRIT. Nine of 18 SNPs had P values SNAP25 and schizophrenia in an Irish family sample. Although we failed to replicate this in an independent sample, this gene should be further tested in other samples.