BACKGROUND: Several studies indicated that antipsychotic treatment response and side effect manifestation can be different due to inter-individual variability in genetic variations. AIM OF THE STUDY: Here we perform a case-control study to explore a potential association between schizophrenia and variants within the antipsychotic drug molecular targets (DRD1, DRD2, DRD3, HTR2A, HTR6) and metabolizing enzymes (CYP2D6, COMT) genes in Armenian population including also analysis of their possible relationship with disease clinical symptoms. METHODS: A total of 18 SNPs was studied in patients with schizophrenia (n = 78) and healthy control subjects (n = 77) using MassARRAY genotyping. RESULTS: We found that two studied genetic variants, namely DRD2 rs4436578*C and HTR2A rs6314*A are underrepresented in the group of patients compared to healthy subjects. After the correction for multiple testing, the rs4436578*C variant remained significant while the rs6314*A reported borderline significance. No significant differences in minor allele frequencies for other studied variants were identified. Also, a relationship between the genotypes and age of onset as well as disease duration has been detected. CONCLUSIONS: The DRD2 rs4436578*C genetic variant might have protective role against schizophrenia, at least in Armenians.

Andranik Chavushyan Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA Yerevan Armenia

Department of Pathological Physiology Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry Palacky University Olomouc Olomouc Czech Republic

Department of Psychiatry National Institute of Health MH RA Yerevan Armenia

Institute of Molecular Biology NAS RA Yerevan Armenia; Russian Armenian University Yerevan Armenia

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