RESUMO

OBJECTIVE: This study used the population of the Central Valley of Costa Rica (CVCR) and phenotyping strategies alternative to DSMIV classifications to investigate the association of neuregulin 1 with schizophrenia. METHOD: Using 134 family trios with a history of psychosis, we genotyped six of the seven markers originally identified to be associated with schizophrenia in Iceland. RESULTS: The neuregulin Icelandic haplotype was not associated with schizophrenia in the CVCR population. However, a novel haplotype was found to be overrepresented in subjects with functional psychosis (global P-value > 0.05). Stratification of the sample by history of mania suggests that this haplotype may be preferentially over-transmitted to persons with a history of manic psychosis. CONCLUSION: These results suggest that the neuregulin 1 gene is unlikely to play a major role in predisposing to schizophrenia in the CVCR. Further studies in the CVCR and other Latin American populations should be performed in order to corroborate these findings.

Assuntos

Transtorno Bipolar/etnologia , Transtorno Bipolar/genética , Hispânico ou Latino/genética , Hispânico ou Latino/estatística & dados numéricos , Proteínas do Tecido Nervoso/genética , Esquizofrenia/etnologia , Esquizofrenia/genética , Área Programática de Saúde , Costa Rica/epidemiologia , Manual Diagnóstico e Estatístico de Transtornos Mentais , Predisposição Genética para Doença , Genótipo , Haplótipos , Humanos , Desequilíbrio de Ligação/genética , Repetições de Microssatélites , Neuregulina-1 , Fenótipo , Reação em Cadeia da Polimerase , Polimorfismo de Nucleotídeo Único/genética