Progranulin (GRN) in two siblings of a Latino family and in other patients with Schizophrenia

Parastoo Momeni*, Karen DeTucci, Richard E. Straub, Daniel R. Weinberger, Peter Davies, Jordan Grafman, John Hardy, Edward D. Huey

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

37 Scopus citations

Abstract

Schizophrenia has been linked to a region on chromosome 17q21 in Latino populations (Escamilla et al., 2009). Mutations of a gene at this location (GRN) are associated with frontotemporal dementia. A recent study demonstrated that patients with frontotemporal dementia who presented with symptoms of schizophrenia show neuropathological findings consistent with GRN mutations, but were not tested for GRN mutations (Velakoulis, Walterfang, Mocellin, Pantelis, & McLean, 2009). The current study describes a Latino family in which two siblings have schizophrenia and one has frontotemporal dementia. We sequenced GRN in one of the siblings with frontotemporal dementia and one of the siblings with schizophrenia. The siblings both have a loss-of-function GRN mutation. This finding, in conjunction with other studies (Escamilla et al., 2009; Velakoulis et al., 2009), suggests that there may be an association between schizophrenia, frontotemporal dementia, and GRN mutations in Latino populations that should be investigated further.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)273-279
Number of pages7
JournalNeurocase
Volume16
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 2010

Funding

This study was supported by the intramural programs of The National Institutes of Health/The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke/The National Institute on Aging/The National Institute of Mental Health, NINDS grant 1K99NS060766-01 (EDH), and the Litwin-Zucker Center for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and Memory Disorders (EDH). We thank Pablo V. Gejman for providing us with DNA samples from schizophrenia patients, Eric Wassermann for neurological examinations, the NINDS Clinical Center nurses for patient care, the assistance of the community physicians involved in the care of the patients, and all of the subjects for their generous participation. None of the authors have any potential conflicts of interest to disclose.

Keywords

  • Frontotemporal dementia
  • Genetics
  • Progranulin
  • Psychiatric disorders
  • Schizophrenia

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Neurology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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