Table 3 Studies examining alterations in the expression levels of neurotransmission-related genes.
Citation | Sample | Methods | Gene | Main findings | Tissue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Kunii et al. 201571 | 176 schizophrenic patients 61 BPD patients 138 MDD patients 326 healthy controls | RT-qPCR | CHRFAM7A, CHRNA7 | Increased expression levels of CHRNA7 mRNA in MDD patients compared with all other groups. Expression of CHRFAM7A was significantly elevated in all diagnostic groups compared with the control group. | Postmortem brain tissues |
Gray et al. 201580 | 53 MMD patients: 26 males and 27 females 34 MDD suicide and 19 MDD non-suicide 32 healthy controls: 19 males and 13 females | RT-qPCR | GluR genes | The majority of the 21 GluR genes that were tested showed higher levels of expression in the MDD subjects relative to controls. The greatest effects were detected in the female groups. | Postmortem brain tissues |
Chandley et al. 201386 | 19 MDD patients 20 healthy control | RT-qPCR immunostaining | SLC1A3, SLC1A2, GLUL, GFAP | Astrocytes, but not oligodendrocytes, demonstrated robust reductions in the expression of SLC1A3 and SLC1A2, whereas GLUL expression was unchanged in MDD patients when compared with controls. GFAP expression was lower in astrocytes, and we confirmed reduced GFAP protein in the LC using immunostaining methods. | Postmortem brain tissues |
Chandley et al. 201481 | 18 MDD patients 18 healthy controls | RT-qPCR | GRIN1, GRIN2A, GRIN2B, GRIN2C, GRIN2D, GRIN3A, GRIN3B, GRIA1, GRIA2, GRIA4, GRIK1, GRIK3, GRIK5, GRM4, GRM5, GRM8 | MDD subjects exhibited significantly higher expression levels of the NMDA receptor subunit genes, GRIN2B and GRIN2C and the metabotropic receptor genes, GRM4 and GRM5, in LC neurons. | Postmortem brain tissues |
Oh et al. 201488 | 15 MDD patients: 7 with suicide, 8 without suicide 15 healthy controls | Reanalysis of existing postmortem data, found in the Stanley neuropathology consortium integrative database, a web-based tool that integrates datasets from the same postmortem brain samples. | GAD1, SLC1A1, SLC1A2, SLC1A3 | The mean GAD1 mRNA was almost all slightly lower in the subjects with MDD as compared with the control group. While SLC1A1-3 mRNA expression was generally lower in the subjects with MDD as compared to the controls in each sub-region, it was only in the white matter (BA46) that SLC1A2 mRNA was significantly lower in the subjects with MDD as compared to the normal control group. | Postmortem brain tissues |
