Association of intron 1 variants of the dopamine transporter gene with schizophrenia

The dopamine transporter (DAT1) gene has been implicated in the pathogenesis of many neuropsychiatric disorders, including schizophrenia. The present study aimed to investigate association of the DAT1 gene polymorphisms with schizophrenia in a Han Chinese population. Two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the DAT1 gene (rs2975223 and rs2455391) were tested in 368 patients with schizophrenia and 420 healthy controls, of whom 293 patients underwent an assessment of psychotic symptoms through the positive and negative syndrome scale (PANSS). The chi-square test (χ²) showed disease association for rs2455391 (corrected p = 0.023 for allelic association and p = 0.034 for genotypic association, respectively). The rs2975223(G)–rs2455391(C) haplotype was associated with increased risk of the illness (p = 0.0012, OR = 2.09, 95% CI = 1.28–3.42). Quantitative trait analysis showed that rs2455391 was associated with positive symptoms, general symptoms and global symptoms but not with negative symptoms. The present results suggest that the DAT1 gene may be mainly involved in the development of the positive symptoms in the Chinese population.