Epistasis effects of COMT and MTHFR on inter-individual differences in mental health: under the inverted U-shaped prefrontal dopamine model

NC Htun, K Miyaki, C Zhao, M Muramatsu… - … and Biophysical Research …, 2014 - Elsevier
NC Htun, K Miyaki, C Zhao, M Muramatsu, N Sato
Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications, 2014Elsevier
Higher cognitive performance, maintenance of mental health and psychological well-being
require adequate prefrontal cortex (PFC) function.“Inverted U-shaped” dopamine model
indicates optimal PFC dopamine level is important to attain its function while high or low
levels have adverse effects. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and
methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) may be involved in this complex non-linear
PFC dopamine regulation. We addressed whether genetic variation reflecting COMT and …
Abstract
Higher cognitive performance, maintenance of mental health and psychological well-being require adequate prefrontal cortex (PFC) function. “Inverted U-shaped” dopamine model indicates optimal PFC dopamine level is important to attain its function while high or low levels have adverse effects. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) may be involved in this complex non-linear PFC dopamine regulation. We addressed whether genetic variation reflecting COMT and MTHFR activities can explain the inter-individual mental health differences in healthy Japanese men (n = 188). The mental health was measured by Mental Health Inventory (MHI)-5 score. The rs4633–rs4818–rs4680 haplotypes were used to represent the multilevel COMT activities, while for MTHFR, the functional single polymorphism, rs1801133 (C677T), was used. We examined the effectiveness of haplotype-based association analysis of COMT on mental health together with studying its interaction with MTHFR-C677T. As a result, the relation between activity-ranked COMT genotype and MHI-5 score showed a tendency to fit into an “inverted U-shaped” quadratic curve (P = 0.054). This curvilinear correlation was significant in the subjects with MTHFR-CC (P < 0.001), but not with MTHFR T-allele carriers (P = 0.793). Our pilot study implies a potential influence of COMT and MTHFR genotypic combination on normal variation of mental health.
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