Monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) plays an important role in various functions of the brain, such as regulation of mood, anxiety and aggression, and dysregulation of MAO-A is observed in stress-related psychiatric disorders.
MAO A knockout mice were found to display high levels of intermale aggression; however, further analyses of these mutants unveiled additional behavioral abnormalities mimicking the core symptoms of autism-spectrum disorder.
However, MAO-A inhibitors, which directly acts on MAO-A protein, have limited use due to their adverse effects. microRNAs (miRNAs) are 18-22 nucleotide long, small non-coding RNAs, which have recently emerged as regulators of protein levels that could potentially be new therapeutic targets for psychiatric disorders.
Collectively, we confirmed that MAOA is a risk gene for psychiatric disorders, and our results provide useful information toward a better understanding of genetic mechanism involving MAOA underlying risk of complex psychiatric disorders.
We studied postinstitutionalized adopted Chinese girls to determine whether those with different variants of the MAOA gene promoter region (MAOA-VNTR) differed in their internalizing and externalizing behavior problems and whether the MAOA genotype moderated the relation between preadoption adversity and current behavior problems.
Patients who lack both MAOA and MAOB have the most extreme laboratory values (urine, blood, and CSF serotonin 4-6 times normal, with elevated O-methylated amine metabolites and reduced deaminated metabolites) in addition to severe intellectual deficiency and behavioral problems.
This review tries to cover the literature on the impact of gene variants implicated in psychiatric disorders on serotonin, dopamine, and MAO-A radioligand binding in living humans.
The results suggest that both maltreatment and MAO-A genotype may be useful for the understanding of male adolescent alcohol-related problem behaviour.
In the present study, the association between the monoamine oxidase A variable number tandem repeat polymorphism and personality traits assessed by the Temperament and Character Inventory was examined in 324 Japanese volunteers without psychiatric disorders.
By conferring allele-specific transcriptional activity on the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene in humans, length variation of a repetitive sequence [(variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR)] in the MAOA promoter influences a constellation of personality traits related to aggressive and antisocial behavior and increases the risk of neurodevelopmental and psychiatric disorders.
Overall, our results, albeit not definitive, are consistent with the hypothesis that variants in MAOA account for a small portion of the variance of SUD risk, possibly mediated by liability to early onset behavioral problems.
A functional polymorphism (the upstream variable-number tandem repeat region, or uVNTR) in the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) promoter region has been reported to be associated with behavioral abnormalities as well as increased serotonergic responsivity.
We then examined genetic polymorphisms in four candidate genes (DRD4, DAT, COMT and MAOA) that have been shown to contribute to the risk of developing various psychiatric disorders where attention is disrupted.
To investigate the possible influence of the allelic variants of the MAOA gene-linked polymorphic region (MAOA-LPR) on the genetic predisposition to psychiatric disorders, we have performed a case-control association study.
We have examined a VNTR polymorphism at the X-linked MAOA gene to test two hypotheses: (1) Do variants of the MAOA gene play a role in any of the behavioral disorders associated with Tourette syndrome or drug abuse?
Lack of monoamine oxidase A (MAO-A) due to either Xp chromosomal deletions or alterations in the coding sequence of the gene for this enzyme are associated with marked changes in monoamine metabolism and appear to be associated with variable cognitive deficits and behavioral changes in humans and in transgenic mice.
The recent finding that a mutation in the structural gene for the enzyme monoamine oxidase A is associated, in several males of a large kindred, with borderline mental retardation and abnormal behavior is an important breakthrough in the field.