Schizophrenia is a
severe mental disorder that affects about 1% of the world population, leading to disability and social exclusion. Glutamatergic neurotransmission is a violation of one of the main hypotheses put forward to explain the neurobiological mechanisms of
schizophrenia. Post mortem studies have found changes in the degree of affinity
glutamate receptors, their transcription, and altered expression of their subunits in the prefrontal cortex, hippocampus, and thalamus in patients with
schizophrenia. As a result of genetic studies of gene family encoding ionotropic
AMPA and
kainate glutamate receptors in
schizophrenia, ambiguous results were received. The association of polymorphic variants of genes GRIA2 and GRIK2 with
paranoid schizophrenia and response to
therapy with
haloperidol in Russian and Tatar of the Republic of Bashkortostan was conducted in the present study.
DNA samples of 257 patients with
paranoid schizophrenia and of 349 healthy controls of Russian and Tatar ethnic group living in the Republic of Bashkortostan were involved into the present study. In the result of the present study: (1) high risk
genetic markers of
paranoid schizophrenia (PSZ) were obtained: in Russians-GR4IA2*CCC (OR = 9.60) and in Tatars-GRIK2*ATG (OR = 3.5), GRIK2*TGG (OR = 3.12) (2) The following low risk
genetic markers of PSZ were revealed: in Tatars-GRIA2*T/T (rs43025506) of GRIA2 gene (OR = 0.34); in Russians.- GRIA2*CCT (OR = 0.481). (3)
Genetic markers of low haloperido! treatment efficacy in respect of negative and positive symptoms GRIK2*T/T (rs2227281) of GRIK2 gene and GRAL42*C/C in Russians, GRIK2*A/A (rs995640) of GRIK2 gene in Tatars. (4)
Genetic markers of low
haloperidol treatment efficacy in respect of positive symptoms GRL42*C/C in Russians. The results of the present study support the hypothesis of the involvement of
glutamate receptor genes in
schizophrenia pathway. Considerable inter-ethnic'diversity of genetic risk factors for this disease was revealed.