도파민 D4수용체 Variants와 정신분열증과의 연관성

Abstract

Objects : Clozapone, prototype of the atypocal, was known to have unique antipsychitic effect with a few extrapyramidal effects. While most typical antipsychofic agents mainly block D2 receptors, clozopine has higher affinity for dopamine D4 receptor than for D2 receptor. Many researchers have tried to find out the relationship between schizophrenia and the abnormality of the genes coding dopamine receptors. But no consistent findings were reported. Recently, dopamine D4 receptor was fylly sequenced, and the alleles of dopamine D4 receptor gene was found in unusual form on the 48th base pair. Our study was performed to identify the distribution of the dopamine D4 receptor alleles of schizophrenics and normal controls, and whether any difference befference between the dopamine D4 receptor alleles of schizophrenics and that of normal controls exists.

Methods : DNA was extracted from the blood of schizophrenic patients(N=60) and normal controls(N=60). Part of the dopamine D4 receptor gene was amplilied by PCR, and amplified DNA was electrophoresed. Authors compared the distribution of the alleles of dopamine D4 receptor gene of normal controls and that of schizophrenic patients.

Results : Six kinds of alleles of D4 receptor were observed both groups. The fouth repeat form of alleles was the most common in both schizophrenic potients(75.8%) and normal controls(70.3%), so there was not signilicant difference between two groups.

Conclusion : The difference in the distribution of the dopamine D4 receptor gene alleles is not thought to be responsible for the pothophysiology of the schizophrenia. However, the difference in the expression of the dopamine D4 receptor gene between normal and schizophrenia is lefi to be scrutinized.