Other reported associations of COMT with obsessive compulsive and rapid cycling bipolar disorder indicate that the COMT gene may have complex and pleiotropic effects on susceptibility and symptomatology of neuropsychiatric disorders.
We hypothesize that either the low activity allele of catechol-O-methyltransferase is a risk factor for bipolar affective disorder in Chinese populations or is in linkage disequilibrium with a nearby susceptibility gene or polymorphism.
It has been suggested that a common functional genetic polymorphism in the COMT gene, which results in 3 to 4-fold difference in COMT enzyme activity, may contribute to the etiology of mental disorders such as bipolar disorder and alcoholism.
The findings support the hypothesis that comorbid panic disorder identifies a genetic subtype of bipolar disorder and suggest a role for COMT and 5-HTT in vulnerability to these disorders.
Relative to the comparison subjects, subjects with bipolar disorder without panic disorder, but not those with comorbid bipolar disorder and panic disorder, showed significantly higher frequencies of the COMT Met158 and the short 5-HTTLPR alleles and genotypes.
These findings suggest that MB-COMT over-expression due to promoter hypomethylation and/or hyperactive allele of COMT may increase dopamine degradation in the frontal lobe providing a molecular basis for the shared symptoms of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.
The COMT Val158Val genotype and serological evidence of infection with HSV-1 are independent risk factors for cognitive impairment in individuals with bipolar disorder, particularly in the domains of immediate and delayed memory.
Influence of the catechol-O-methyltransferase Val108/158Met polymorphism on the plasma concentration of catecholamine metabolites and on clinical features in type I bipolar disorder--a preliminary report.
Here, we report the investigation of the differential activity of membrane-bound catechol-O-methyltransferase (MB-COMT) due to altered promoter methylation and the nature of the contribution of COMTVal158Met polymorphism as risk factors for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder by analyzing 115 post-mortem brain samples from the frontal lobe.
The analysis of the COMT haplotypes revealed an association of the A-G haplotype with EPS risk in the overall group and the bipolar disorder subgroup, and an association of the A-A haplotype with EPS protection in the bipolar subgroup.
To determine whether the COMT gene is associated with personality traits related to genetic risk for either schizophrenia or bipolar disorder, we examined dimensions of personality psychopathology in biological relatives of individuals with the disorders.
In this study, we first investigate the possible association between the Val/Met polymorphism in COMT and bipolar disorder in the Han population, which has never been done before.