Association of major depression with rare functional variants in norepinephrine transporter and serotonin1A receptor genes

Dysregulations of central noradrenergic and serotonergic neurotransmission have been suggested to contribute to the pathogenesis of neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression. The norepinephrine transporter (NET; SLC6A2) and the serotonin (5-HT)1A receptor (5-HT1A receptor; HTR1A) play an important role in central nervous monoaminergic homeostasis. As shown previously, variations in the human NET and 5-HT1A receptor genes can alter noradrenergic and serotonergic signaling in the brain: a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the coding region of the NET gene resulting in a F528C substitution increased plasma membrane expression of this NET variant, and a SNP in the human 5-HT1A receptor gene leading to the R219L receptor variant almost abolished cellular signal transduction subsequent to receptor activation. The present study aimed at investigating whether these NET and 5-HT1A receptor variants are associated with major depression (MD). The sample comprised 426 patients suffering from unipolar MD as well as 643 healthy control subjects for the variants of the 5-HT1A receptor and the NET. Both SNPs were shown to be associated with MD. In conclusion, our results favor the hypothesis that monoaminergic neurotransmission in general and the F528C NET and R219L 5-HT1A receptor variants in particular are involved in the pathogenesis of depression. © 2008 Wiley-Liss, Inc.