MicroRNA in Schizophrenia: Genetic and Expression Analysis of miR-130b (22q11)

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O. A. Burmistrova^1,2, A. Y. Goltsov^2,3, L. I. Abramova², V. G. Kaleda², V. A. Orlova², and E. I. Rogaev^1,2,4*

¹Research Center of Mental Health, Russian Academy Medical Sciences, Zagorodnoe Shosse 2/2, 113152 Moscow, Russia

²Department of Psychiatry, Brudnick Neuropsychiatric Research Institute, University of Massachusetts Medical School, 303 Belmont Street, Worcester, MA 01604, USA; E-mail: Evgeny.Rogaev@umassmed.edu

³Faculty of Bioengineering and Bioinformatics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 119992 Moscow, Russia

⁴Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences, 119991 Moscow, Russia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received April 9, 2007

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MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are a class of small regulatory RNAs that control a level of expression of protein encoding genes. Their role in brain pathologies is unknown. We made a first attempt to carry out a genetic study coupled with gene expression analysis of microRNA in human neuropsychiatric pathology. Presumably, at least one third of known miRNA genes are expressed in the brain. Mutations disrupting MECP2 protein lead to abnormal development of the brain and resulting behavior. MiR-130b expressed in the brain and potentially targeting MECP2 is located in the susceptibility locus for schizophrenia (22q11). We performed a comparative analysis of the expression of miR-130b in 24 brain neocortex samples from schizophrenic and normal individuals. The stability and effective detection of mature microRNA in postmortem tissues using Real-time PCR have been shown. Screening for mutations has identified a population polymorphism in the 5´-upstream miR-130b gene region containing DNA elements for putative transcription factors. Genetic association analysis of 300 schizophrenia and 316 normal control individuals revealed no statistically significant association of any of the miR-130b allelic variants with schizophrenia. The data demonstrated feasibility and perspective of convergent genetic and expression analysis of human microRNA genes in testing their role in human diseases.

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KEY WORDS: microRNA, miR-130b, gene expression, genetic polymorphism, schizophrenia, populations, brain

DOI: 10.1134/S0006297907050161

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