DNA-methylation gene network dysregulation in peripheral blood lymphocytes of schizophrenia patients

• Published in: Schizophrenia research Vol. 150; no. 1; pp. 312 - 318
• Main Authors: Auta, J, Smith, R.C, Dong, E, Tueting, P, Sershen, H, Boules, S, Lajtha, A, Davis, J, Guidotti, A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01-10-2013; Elsevier
• Subjects: Adult; Adult and adolescent clinical studies; Biological and medical sciences; Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - genetics; Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor - metabolism; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferase 1; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases - genetics; DNA (Cytosine-5-)-Methyltransferases - metabolism; DNA demethylation; DNA Methylation - genetics; DNA methyltransferase (DNMT); DNA-Binding Proteins - genetics; DNA-Binding Proteins - metabolism; Epigenetic; Female; Gene Regulatory Networks; Glucocorticoid receptor (GCortR); Humans; Lymphocytes - metabolism; Male; Medical sciences; Middle Aged; Mixed Function Oxygenases; Proto-Oncogene Proteins - genetics; Proto-Oncogene Proteins - metabolism; Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychopathology. Psychiatry; Psychoses; Receptors, Glucocorticoid - genetics; Receptors, Glucocorticoid - metabolism; RNA, Messenger - metabolism; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - genetics; Schizophrenia - pathology; Statistics as Topic; Ten-eleven-translocation hydroxylase (TET); Young Adult; Brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF); DNA demethylation; Ten-eleven-translocation hydroxylase (TET); Epigenetic; Glucocorticoid receptor (GCortR); DNA methyltransferase (DNMT); Human; Enzyme; Transferases; Hydroxylase; Schizophrenia; Genetic determinism; Psychosis; Gene; Methyltransferases; DNA; Glucocorticoid receptor; Genetics; Epigenesis; Oxidoreductases; Brain derived neurotrophic factor; Methylation; Lymphocyte
• ISSN: 0920-9964; 1573-2509
• DOI: 10.1016/j.schres.2013.07.030

Abstract The epigenetic dysregulation of the brain genome associated with the clinical manifestations of schizophrenia (SZ) includes altered DNA promoter methylation of several candidate genes. We and others have reported that two enzymes that belong to the DNA-methylation/demethylation network pathways—DNMT1 (DNA-methyltransferase) and ten-eleven translocator-1(TET1) methylcytosine deoxygenase are abnormally increased in corticolimbic structures of SZ postmortem brain. The objective of this study was to investigate whether the expression of these components of the DNA-methylation–demethylation pathways known to be altered in the brain of SZ patients are also altered in peripheral blood lymphocytes (PBL). The data show that increases in DNMT1 and TET1 and in glucocorticoid receptor (GCortR) and brain derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNAs in PBL of SZ patients are comparable to those reported in the brain of SZ patients. The finding that the expressions of DNMT1 and TET1 are increased and SZ candidate genes such as BDNF and GCortR are altered in the same direction in both the brain and PBL together with recent studies showing highly correlated patterns of DNA methylation across the brain and blood, support the hypothesis that a common epigenetic dysregulation may be operative in the brain and peripheral tissues of SZ patients.