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Association between forkhead-box P2 gene polymorphism and clinical symptoms in chronic schizophrenia in a Chinese population

  • Psychiatry and Preclinical Psychiatric Studies - Original Article
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Abstract

The forkhead-box P2 (FOXP2) gene polymorphism has been reported to be involved in the susceptibility to schizophrenia; however, few studies have investigated the association between FOXP2 gene polymorphism and clinical symptoms in schizophrenia. This study investigated whether the FOXP2 gene was associated with the development and symptoms of schizophrenia in relatively genetically homogeneous Chinese population. The FOXP2 rs10447760 polymorphism was genotyped in 1069 schizophrenia inpatients and 410 healthy controls using a case–control design. The patients’ psychopathology was assessed by the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). We found no significant differences in the genotype and allele distributions between the patient and control groups. Interestingly, we found significant differences in PANSS total, positive symptom, and general psychopathology scores between genotypic subgroups in patients, with the higher score in patients with CC genotype than those with CT genotype (all p < 0.05). After adjusting demographic and clinical variables, the difference still remained significant for the PANSS positive symptom score and general psychopathology (both p < 0.05). Our findings suggest that the FOXP2 rs10447760 polymorphism may not contribute to the development of schizophrenia, but may contribute to the clinical symptoms of schizophrenia among Han Chinese.

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Acknowledgements

Funding for this study was provided by grants from the Graduate Innovation Fund of Jilin University (2016217), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81371477), the Beijing Municipal Natural Science Foundation (7132063 and 7072035), and the NARSAD Independent Investigator Grant (20314). These sources had no further role in study design in the collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, in the writing of the report, and in the decision to submit the paper for publication.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, 1163 Xinmin Street, Changchun, 130021, China

    Wenwang Rao, Qiong Yu, Yaqin Yu & Changgui Kou

  2. Suzhou Guangji Hospital, Suzhou, China

    Xiangdong Du, Yingyang Zhang, Li Hui, Guangzhong Yin, Xiaomin Zhu & Lijuan Man

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, Houston, TX, USA

    Jair C. Soares & Xiang Yang Zhang

  4. Psychiatry Research Center, Beijing HuiLongGuan Hospital, Peking University, Changping District, Beijing, 100096, China

    Xiang Yang Zhang

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  1. Wenwang Rao
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  2. Xiangdong Du
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  3. Yingyang Zhang
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  4. Qiong Yu
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  5. Li Hui
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  9. Xiaomin Zhu
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Correspondence to Qiong Yu or Xiang Yang Zhang.

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Rao, W., Du, X., Zhang, Y. et al. Association between forkhead-box P2 gene polymorphism and clinical symptoms in chronic schizophrenia in a Chinese population. J Neural Transm 124, 891–897 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-017-1723-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-017-1723-x

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