Genetic analysis of SNPs in CACNA1C and ANK3 gene with schizophrenia: A comprehensive meta-analysis

Recently, genome-wide association studies (GWAS), meta-analyses, and replication studies focusing on bipolar disorder (BD) have implicated the α-1C subunit of the L-type voltage-dependent calcium channel (CACNA1C) and ankyrin 3 (ANK3) genes in BD. Based on the hypothesis that both schizophrenia (SZ) and BD may share some common genetic risk factors, we investigated the association of CACNA1C and ANK3 with SZ using meta-analytic techniques, combining all published data up to April 2015. Nine teams, including four European decent samples and five Asian samples, contributed 14,141 cases and 30,679 controls for the analysis of CACNA1C rs1006737 and SZ. A significant difference was identified between patients and controls for the A-allele of rs1006737 in combined studies (Z=6.02, P=1.74E-09), in European studies (Z=4.08, P=4.50E-05), and in Asian studies (Z=4.60, P=4.22E-06). Meanwhile, for the T-allele of ANK3 rs10761482 (1,794 cases versus 1,395 controls), a significant association was observed in combined samples (Z=2.06, P=0.04) and in Asian samples (Z=3.10, P=0.002). In summary, our study provides further evidence for the positive association of CACNA1C and ANK3 with SZ. These results support the hypothesis that both SZ and BD share common genetic risk factors. Further research is needed to examine the functions of CACNA1C and ANK3, and their interacting partners in the molecular, developmental, and pathophysiological processes in SZ.