Association of Methylation Profiles of Mitochondrial Genes with Schizophrenia

Mitochondrial dysfunction manifests common central nervous system disorders such as seizures, dementia, ataxia, mitochondrial encephalomyopathy (such as MELARS). Methylation profiles of mitochondrial genes in schizophrenia may help to explain the phenotype of schizophrenic symptoms such as anhedonia, weakness, fatigue and negative symptoms. The dysfunction of mitochondria has been suggested to be one of the disease mechanism for schizophrenia. The differential expression genes profile of mitochondrial genes implicates modulation mechanism of protein-protein interactions. Methylation in the promotor region of mitochondrial related genes such as NDUFS6, ATP5H, NDUFA10, NDUFA6 and NDUFV1 play the important role in dysfunction of mitochondrial subunit complex. It indicates the mitochondrial complex I complex, especially NADH: ubiquinone oxidoreductase (EC 1.6.5.3) gamma subunit could be the potential biomarker for schizophrenia. These results suggested that methylation profile of the genomic sequence in the promoter region of mitochondrial genes might be a crucial factor of pathogenesis for schizophrenia.