NACP-Rep1 relates to Beck Depression Inventory Scores in Healthy Humans

Abstract

Alpha-synuclein (SNCA) is associated with a range of psychiatric diseases including neurodegeneration, alcohol craving, and depression. It regulates cellular homeostasis by virtue of its ability to interfere in dopaminergic, serotonergic, and noradrenergic pathways. To date, it is unclear whether the previously described association between SNCA and depressive symptomatology is limited to females with eating disorders or whether it could be extended to include healthy individuals. We included 105 women and 108 men. Genetic data and mRNA expression analyses were drawn from peripheral blood and the severity of depressive symptoms was quantified by the Beck's Depression Inventory (BDI). We found a significant association between the NACP-Rep1 length polymorphism and the BDI score (p = 0.004). Moreover, there was a significant gender dimorphism regarding mRNA expression of SNCA (p = 0.011). Our analysis revealed no further association between the In4 polymorphism or between the mRNA expression of SNCA and the BDI score. Since this investigation was limited to healthy individuals, conclusions concerning depression according to ICD-10 or DSM-IV cannot be drawn. The reported results may contribute to a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms linked to depressive symptoms.

<i>SNCA</i> Rep1 microsatellite length influences non-motor symptoms in early Parkinson&#x2019;s disease

“…Interestingly, α-Syn has been implicated in psychiatric disorders, particularly the links between Rep1 polymorphism and psychiatric symptoms. Longer Rep1 alleles were more frequent in alcohol-dependent patients compared to healthy controls [ 18 ], and correlated with greater depressive symptoms in both patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) [ 19 ] and healthy individuals [ 20 ]. Depressive symptom severity in patients with MDD also correlated with increased SNCA mRNA levels [ 19 ].…”

Erratum to: NACP-Rep1 relates to Beck Depression Inventory Scores in Healthy Humans

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A reanalysis of the NACP-Rep1 genotypes in our publication "NACP-Rep1 relates to Beck Depression Inventory scores in healthy humans" (Lenz et al 2011) revealed a deviation from the principles of the HardyWeinberg equilibrium (HWE, goodness-of-fit test [χ 2 ], p<10 -30 ). As reported in literature, several factors might cause violations of HWE.

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“…Therefore, we re- The results revealed initial misgenotyping primarily due to an overestimation of homozygous individuals. We recalculated the previously described statistical analyses using corrected genotype frequencies (Lenz et al 2011). The corrected genotypes were in HWE (p=0.12).…”