Genetic association of DISC1 variant rs3738401 with susceptibility to Schizophrenia risk in North Indian population

DISC1 regulates signalling pathways which are involved in neuronal development, brain maturation like neuronal proliferation and processes involved in central nervous system development. The DISC1 gene is one of the potential candidate gene involved in Schizophrenia risk. In the present study, we performed case-control association study using TaqMan based chemistry in which a total of 382 individuals, 152 Schizophrenia patients and 230 healthy controls were genotyped to explore the association of rs3738401 and rs16854954 of DISC1 gene with susceptibility to Schizophrenia risk in North Indian population of Jammu region. The findings from the study revealed that rs3738401 was significantly associated with Schizophrenia and the G allele of rs3738401 is associated with increased risk for the disorder (OR = 1.66; [1.22–2.24 at 95%CI] P = 0.001) whereas other variant rs16854954 of DISC1 gene was not found to be associated with the disease(OR = 0.96, [0.71–1.30 at 95% CI] P = 0.75). The present study offers an important evidence on the genetic cause of DISC1 gene in North Indian population and further strengthens the GWAS findings on the role of DISC1 in schizophrenia risk. This study provides the holistic view about the Schizophrenia in Jammu region, North Indian population and it can be a hallmark if verified on a very large sample size (cohort).