Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Brief Communication
  • Published:

A neuregulin 1 variant associated with abnormal cortical function and psychotic symptoms

Abstract

NRG1, encoding neuregulin 1, is a susceptibility gene for schizophrenia, but no functional mutation causally related to the disorder has yet been identified. Here we investigate the effects of a variant in the human NRG1 promoter region in subjects at high risk of schizophrenia. We show that this variant is associated with (i) decreased activation of frontal and temporal lobe regions, (ii) increased development of psychotic symptoms and (iii) decreased premorbid IQ.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Prices vary by article type

from$1.95

to$39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Effect of SNP8NRG243177 genotype on the development of psychotic symptoms and regional brain activity.

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. David, A.S. et al. Psychol. Med. 27, 1311–1323 (1997).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Lawrie, S.M., Johnstone, E.C. & Weinberger, D.R. Schizophrenia: From Imaging to Neuroscience (Oxford Univ. Press, New York, 2004).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Corfas, G., Roy, K. & Buxbaum, J.D. Nat. Neurosci. 7, 575 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Badner, J.A. & Gershon, E.S. Mol. Psychiatry 7, 405–411 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Stefansson, H. et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 71, 877–892 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  6. Stefansson, H. et al. Am. J. Hum. Genet. 72, 83–87 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Li, D., Collier, D.A. & He, L. Hum. Mol. Genet. 15, 1995–2002 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Law, A.J. et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 103, 6747–6752 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Johnstone, E.C. et al. Schizophr. Res. 46, 1 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Whalley, H.C. et al. Brain 127, 478–490 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Williams, L.M. et al. Am. J. Psychiatry 161, 480–489 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Marjoram, D. et al. Neuroimage 31, 1850–1858 (2006).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Honey, G.D. et al. Psychol. Med. 33, 1007–1018 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Friston, K.J. & Frith, C.D. Clin. Neurosci. 3, 89–97 (1995).

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  15. Green, E.K. et al. Arch. Gen. Psychiatry 62, 642–648 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

We thank P. Miller for assistance with data management. This work was funded by the Dr Mortimer and Theresa Sackler Institute Foundation, the UK Medical Research Council (Programme Grants G9226254 and G9825423 awarded to E.C.J. and colleagues, and G0100266 awarded to D.J.P. and colleagues) and the Stanley Medical Research Institute (for support of B.J.B). Imaging was conducted at the Scottish Higher Education Funding Council Brain Imaging Research Centre, Edinburgh. Genotyping was performed at the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Genetics Core.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

J.H. investigated the association of NRG1 with psychotic symptoms in this cohort and wrote the manuscript. H.C.W. and J.H. conducted the fMRI analysis. D.E.J. conducted the structural MRI analysis. B.J.B. collected the blood samples and A.M.M. gave advice regarding data analysis. K.L.E. and P.A.T. contributed to the analysis of the genetic data and D.J.P. supervised the genetic component of the project. E.C.J. designed and implemented the project. D.G.C.-O. and E.C.J. conducted the clinical assessments. S.M.L. supervised the neuroimaging.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeremy Hall.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing financial interests.

Supplementary information

Supplementary Fig. 1

Graphs represent parameter estimates and 90% confidence intervals for the 3 genotype groups in the contrast of sentence completion versus rest at peak voxels in medial prefrontal cortext and right temporo-occipital junction. (PDF 34 kb)

Supplementary Table 1

Additional marker information. (PDF 82 kb)

Supplementary Table 2

Symptom severity. (PDF 59 kb)

Supplementary Table 3

Symptom type. (PDF 45 kb)

Supplementary Table 4

fMRI data excluding related subjects. (PDF 56 kb)

Supplementary Methods (PDF 110 kb)

Supplementary Note (PDF 56 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hall, J., Whalley, H., Job, D. et al. A neuregulin 1 variant associated with abnormal cortical function and psychotic symptoms. Nat Neurosci 9, 1477–1478 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1795

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1795

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing