VDR, CYP24A1, CYP27B1 gene expression analysis in schizophrenia patients

Objective: Schizophrenia is a devastating psychiatric disorder. It is now postulated that genetic predispositionalong with environmental risk factors leaves individuals susceptible to this disorder. Low levels of vitamin D is apotential risk factor for developing schizophrenia. Vitamin D modulates neurodevelopment, neuroprotection, andimmunomodulation. Its deficiency leads to aberrant neurodevelopment in schizophrenia patients. Method: In thiscase-control study, relative expression of vitamin D receptor (VDR), CYP27B1 and CYP24A1 in schizophreniapatients was compared with healthy individuals. Total RNA was extracted from whole blood of 50 patients withschizophrenia and 50 normal controls. Real-Time PCR was used to determine relative gene expression levels ofVDR, CYP27B1, and CYP24A1.Results: Schizophrenia patients revealed significant upregulation in both VDR (P=0.004) and CYP27B1 (P=0.002) gene expression. However, there was a decrease in expression level of CYP24A1 which was notstatistically significant. Finally, there was not any significant expression correlation between the pair of genes.Conclusion: According to this study, we did not detect any significant change in expression level of CYP24A1possibly because of small sample size. Although, VDR and CYP27B1 had a significant increase in expression inschizophrenia patients. Therefore, we hypothesized that this upregulation may happen in schizophrenia patientsas a result of a compensatory mechanism to protect affected individuals against adverse consequences of thisdisorder. Furthermore, it seems possible that vitamin D up-regulates or down-regulates many agents acting invarious pathways through genomic mechanism to exert this compensatory effect.

Keywords:

CYP27B1 , CYP24A1 , VDR , Schizophrenia , Real time PCR