Abstract
Myocyte enhancer factor 2C (MEF2C) is associated with hyperactivity and might be a novel risk gene for susceptibility to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Therefore, this study aimed to explore the association between MEF2C genetic variants and ADHD in the Chinese Han population. A total of 215 patients with ADHD and 233 controls were recruited for this study. The Swanson, Nolan, and Pelham version IV questionnaire was used to evaluate the clinical features of ADHD. In silico analysis was used to annotate the biological functions of the promising single nucleotide polymorphisms. Our findings indicated that MEF2C rs587490 was significantly associated with ADHD in the multiplicative model (OR = 0.640, p = 0.002). Participants with the rs587490 TT allele exhibited less hyperactivity/impulsivity than those with the rs587490 CC allele. Furthermore, the expression quantitative trait loci analysis suggested that rs587490 could regulate the gene expression of MEF2C in the hippocampus, putamen, thalamus, and frontal white matter. Our study concluded that the MEF2C rs587490 T allele is significantly associated with a reduced risk of ADHD in the Chinese Han population, which provides new insight into the genetic etiology of ADHD.
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The data sets generated during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No: 81773456) to Dr. Jing Wu.
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This study was approved both by the Ethics Committee of Wuhan Children’s Hospital and Tongji Medical College at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. All procedures done in the current study correlated with human participants accorded with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee.
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Fu, X., Yao, T., Chen, X. et al. MEF2C gene variations are associated with ADHD in the Chinese Han population: a case–control study. J Neural Transm 129, 431–439 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-022-02490-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00702-022-02490-9