RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Functional analysis of evolutionary human methylated regions in schizophrenia patients
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 540294
DO 10.1101/540294
A1 Banerjee, Niladri
A1 Polushina, Tatiana
A1 Stavrum, Anne-Kristin
A1 Steen, Vidar Martin
A1 Le Hellard, Stephanie
YR 2019
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2019/02/05/540294.abstract
AB Background Recent studies have implicated variations in DNA methylation in the aetiology of schizophrenia. Genome-wide scans in both brain and blood report differential methylated regions (DMRs) and positions (DMPs) between patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls. Previously, we reported that DMRs where human specific methylation (hDMR) has occurred over evolutionary time are enriched for schizophrenia-associated markers (SCZ_hDMR). However, it is unknown whether these human specific DMRs show variable methylation in patients with schizophrenia.Methods Using publicly available data, we investigate if human specific DMRs that harbour genetic variants associated with schizophrenia are differentially methylated between cases and controls.Results We find statistically significant (p < 1e-4) methylation difference in schizophrenia associated human specific DMRs (SCZ hDMR) between brain samples of cases and controls. However, we fail to find evidence of similar differences in methylation in blood samples.Conclusion Regions that are evolutionarily important for human species and that are associated with schizophrenia, also show difference in methylation variation in the brain in patients with schizophrenia.