A family-based association study of schizophrenia with polymorphisms at three candidate genes

Clinical researches have shown that there is a genetic contribution to the pathogenesis of schizophrenia. Recent studies have suggested that three genes neuropeptide Y (NPY), phosphoinositide-3-kinase class 3 (PIK3C3) and 14-3-3 eta chain gene (YWHAH) are probably associated with schizophrenia. To replicate these findings, we carried out a family-based study on a sample of 235 trios. Our results suggest that the polymorphisms at the NPY and YWHAH genes are unlikely to be linked with genetic susceptibility to schizophrenia. However, we found significant evidence of preferential transmission of the −432C allele of the PIK3C3 gene in the entire trios (Z = 2.91, d.f. = 1, P = 0.0036) and the male probands trios (Z = 2.66, d.f. = 1, P = 0.0079).