But the co-occurrence among outcomes between exposures to chemical stressors, non-chemical stressors, and the low activity MAOA genotype suggest that mental illness in children may be influenced by multiple interacting factors.
Specifically, the Val<sup>158</sup>Met polymorphism greatly alters COMT function and cognitive performance in both psychiatric disorders and healthy controls.
The results of association rules showed that CCK, MAOA, and 5-HTT are the most closely related.We used text mining technology to analyze genes related to mental disorders to further summarize and clarify the relationships between mental disorders and genes as well as identify potential relationships, providing a foundation for future experiments.
COMT is a known neuropsychiatric candidate gene, which contains a genotype variant (Val<sup>108/158</sup>Met) that affects protein function and has been found associated with several psychiatric disorders.
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.
The present study appears to be the first comprehensive meta-analysis of COMT genetic association studies to cover all psychiatric disorders for which there were available data, published in any language, and with an emphasis on investigating disorder subtypes (defined clinically or by demographic or other variables).
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.
The COMT Val<sup>158</sup>Met genotype and PTSD association persists after controlling for race (multivariable OR of 0.29, 95% CI [0.10-0.83]) and pre-existing psychiatric disorders/substance abuse (multivariable OR of 0.32, 95% CI [0.11-0.97]).
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.
Further research with larger samples is needed to explore the interactions of the COMT gene rs4680 polymorphism and sex and psychiatric disorders on suicide attempts.
Among the genes in the deleted region, catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) has a particular relevance for psychiatric disorders: lower COMT enzymatic activity decreases the clearance of dopamine (DA), yielding higher levels of catecholamines in the central nervous system.
Since recent studies in patients affected by neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders suggested a role of saitohin (STH) gene as a concurring factor in hypofrontality, we hypothesize that STH and COMT polymorphisms could have an additive effect on cognition in schizophrenia.
Additionally, these findings contribute to the growing literature on sex-specific effects of COMT on the predisposition to psychiatric disorders and personality traits.
Increasing evidence suggests that the catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) gene might be associated with cognition in patients with mental disorders and healthy people.