Background: Recent research has implicated that mutations in the neurexin-1 (NRXN1) gene on chromosome 2p16.3 might play a role in schizophrenia, autism, and nicotine dependence. In order to explore the association of NRXN1 polymorphisms with schizophrenia, we made a case-control association study in Chinese Han population.
Methods: We examined six tag single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning 116.7 kb of NRXN1 in 768 schizophrenic patients and 738 healthy control subjects. The association of NRXN1 polymorphisms with schizophrenia and the age-at-onset of this disease were explored.
Results: Our results showed that four SNPs of NRXN1 gene were significantly associated with schizophrenia (rs10490168: G > A, p = 0.017; rs2024513: A > G, p = 0.006; rs13382584: T > C, p = 0.009; and rs1558852: G > A, p = 0.031). Furthermore, the association of SNP rs2024513 with schizophrenia remained significance after the Bonferroni correction. Haplotypes consisting of above six SNPs also showed significantly associated with schizophrenia (global chi-square = 14.725, p = 0.022). A protective haplotype AGTGCA remained associated with schizophrenia, even after 10,000 permutation tests (empirical p-value = 0.043). However, we did not find any association with age-at-onset of schizophrenia with NRXN1 polymorphisms.
Conclusions: Our findings suggest that NRXN1 might represent a major susceptibility gene for schizophrenia in Chinese Han population.