Expression level study of EGR family genes in schizophrenic patients

Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a major psychiatric disorder with 1 percent prevalence and unknown etiology with acute and chronic positive, negative and cognitive symptoms. Early growth response (EGR) family genes including EGR1 to EGR4 are transcription factors that are essential for development and function of central and peripheral nervous system. Previous studies were reported involvement of EGR1 and EGR3 with etiology of schizophrenia and addiction.mRNA level of EGR1, EGR2, EGR3 and EGR4 were studied in blood samples of 150 Iranian schizophrenic patients and 50 non-psychiatric subjects using quantitative Real time PCR. Also positive and negative symptom scale (PANSS) from patients and Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAISE) from all subjects were obtained.Significant down regulation of EGR1, EGR2 and EGR3 were detected in SCZ vs. non-psychiatrics. No significant expression alteration was revealed in EGR4 between SCZ vs. non-psychiatrics. Correlations were found between EGR1 and EGR2 down expression and higher scores of negative symptoms in PANSS and memory deficit in Digit span memory subscale of WAISE.Results were suggested EGR family role in etiology of schizophrenia. In addition findings indicate down regulation of transcription factors may lead to negative symptoms and memory deficiency. EGR family genes may present as biomarker for schizophrenia.