Plenary Session IV: New Genetic Technologies

✍ Scribed by Propping, Peter

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 43 KB
• Volume: 81
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0148-7299
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1096-8628(19981106)81:6<524::aid-ajmg7>3.0.co;2-w

✦ Synopsis

Objectives: The opioid system is thought to have a mediating role in anxiety and depression, to exert regulatory influence over learning and memory formation, and to modify both amplitude and latency of the P300 wave of evoked related potentials. The present study sought to determine the relevance of a dinucleotide repeat polymorphism of the endopeptidase (CD10NE) gene, which encodes proteins involved in the rate limitation of enkephalin production, to personality traits and P300 amplitude and latency. Methods: We examined this marker in 143 non-Hispanic Caucasian college students for possible association with the 12 traits assessed by the NEO-Five-Factor-Personality Inventory, and in 36 substance abusers evaluated for auditory evoked potentials. Results: In the college student sample, multivariate regression analysis revealed a negative association between the high base pair repeats (ജ allele 4) and NEO-Neuroticism (P ‫ס‬ .005). Since evoked potentials studies have shown neuroticism to be associated with reduced amplitude, we predicted greater P300 amplitudes for the CD10NE ജ 4 allele carriers in the EEG study. Confirming our hypothesis, high base pair allele carriers had elevations of P300 amplitude at the coronal (P < .005) and frontal lobe (P < .05) electrode sites, compared to low base pair allele carriers, but no differences in latency were noted. Conclusions: Collectively, these findings confirm the importance of enkephalins in personality development, and underscore the relevance of the CD10NE gene for neuropsychiatric studies.