Association of LPHN3 rs6551665 A/G polymorphism with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder in Korean children

•ADHD is a common childhood neuropsychiatric disorder occurring in 2-7.6% of Korean children.•We examined the association between the LPHN3 rs6551665 A/G polymorphism and ADHD.•Significant association was observed between LPHN3 variations and ADHD.

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common and highly heritable disorder of school-age children. Its heritability was estimated at 80-90% but the genetic component underpinning this disorder remains to be disclosed. Recently, a highly consistent association between latrophilin3 (LPHN3) gene and ADHD was reported. In the present study, we examined the association between the LPHN3 rs6551665 A/G polymorphism and ADHD in Korea. The samples used in the study consisted of 150 ADHD children and 322 controls. The ADHD children were diagnosed according to DSM-IV. ADHD symptoms were evaluated with Dupaul Parent ADHD Rating Scales. LPHN3 rs6551665 SNP was determined by PCR-RFLP. Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, genotype and allele frequency differences between the case and the control, and odds ratio were examined using the chi-square and exact tests. The LPHN3 gene locus was found to have no deviation from the Hardy-Weinberg expectation. We observed a significant association between the ADHD children and control group in genotype frequency (p = 0.01) and allele frequency (p = 0.02). The ADHD children appeared to have a surplus of GG genotype (OR 2.959, 95% CI 1.416-6.184, p = 0.003) and G allele (OR 1.44, 95% CI 1.062-1.945, p = 0.02). The association was more distinctive when analysis was confined to male samples (p = 0.005), the OR of male controls and cases was 4.029 (95% CI 1.597-10.164, p = 0.002) and the OR having G allele vs. A allele was 1.46 (95% CI 1.002-2.127, p = 0.048). Thus our results imply that the LPHN3 rs6551665 GG genotype and G allele may provide a significant effect on the ADHD, although larger sample sizes and functional studies are necessary to further elucidate these findings.