Bipolar Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Bipolar, including details on bipolar disorder, symptoms, treatment, depression, medication.

Genome-wide association of bipolar disorder suggests an enrichment of replicable associations in regions near genes.

Smith EN, Koller DL, Panganiban C, Szelinger S, Zhang P, Badner JA, Barrett TB, Berrettini WH, Bloss CS, Byerley W, Coryell W, Edenberg HJ, Foroud T, Gershon ES, Greenwood TA, Guo Y, Hipolito M, Keating BJ, Lawson WB, Liu C, Mahon PB, McInnis MG, McMahon FJ, McKinney R, Murray SS, Nievergelt CM, Nurnberger JI, Nwulia EA, Potash JB, Rice J, Schulze TG, Scheftner WA, Shilling PD, Zandi PP, Zöllner S, Craig DW, Schork NJ, Kelsoe JR

Scripps Genomic Medicine and Scripps Translational Science Institute, La Jolla, California, United States of America.

Although a highly heritable and disabling disease, bipolar disorder's (BD) genetic variants have been challenging to identify. We present new genotype data for 1,190 cases and 401 controls and perform a genome-wide association study including additional samples for a total of 2,191 cases and 1,434 controls. We do not detect genome-wide significant associations for individual loci; however, across all SNPs, we show an association between the power to detect effects calculated from a previous genome-wide association study and evidence for replication (P = 1.5×10(-7)). To demonstrate that this result is not likely to be a false positive, we analyze replication rates in a large meta-analysis of height and show that, in a large enough study, associations replicate as a function of power, approaching a linear relationship. Within BD, SNPs near exons exhibit a greater probability of replication, supporting an enrichment of reproducible associations near functional regions of genes. These results indicate that there is likely common genetic variation associated with BD near exons (±10 kb) that could be identified in larger studies and, further, provide a framework for assessing the potential for replication when combining results from multiple studies.

Published 8 July 2011 in PLoS Genet, 7(6): e1002134.
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