GDNF and anxiety. Homo sapiens

GDNF gene variants were studied as possible risk factors of depression or anxiety on a young sample. The association study involved eight (rs1981844, rs3812047, rs3096140, rs2973041, rs2910702, rs1549250, rs2973050 and rs11111) GDNF single nucleotide polymorphisms and anxiety and depression scores measured by the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) on 708 Caucasian young adults with no psychiatric history. Results provided significant effects of two single nucleotide polymorphisms on anxiety scores following the Bonferroni correction for multiple testing (p=0.00070 and p=0.00138 for rs3812047 and rs3096140, respectively). Haplotype analysis confirmed the role of these SNPs (p=0.00029). A significant sex-gene interaction was also observed since the effect of the rs3812047 A allele as a risk factor of anxiety was more pronounced in males. This is the first demonstration of a significant association between the GDNF gene and mood characteristics... (for more see dbGaP study page.)