TY  - JOUR
A1  - Ziegler, C.
A1  - Richter, J.
A1  - Mahr, M.
A1  - Gajewska, A.
A1  - Schiele, M.A.
A1  - Gehrmann, A.
A1  - Schmidt, B.
A1  - Lesch, K.-P.
A1  - Lang, T.
A1  - Helbig-Lang, S.
A1  - Pauli, P.
A1  - Kircher, T.
A1  - Reif, A.
A1  - Rief, W.
A1  - Vossbeck-Elsebusch, A.N.
A1  - Arolt, V.
A1  - Wittchen, H.-U.
A1  - Hamm, A.O.
A1  - Deckert, J.
A1  - Domschke, K.
T1  - MAOA gene hypomethylation in panic disorder-reversibility of an epigenetic risk pattern by psychotherapy
JF  - Translational Psychiatry
N2  - Epigenetic signatures such as methylation of the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene have been found to be altered in panic disorder (PD). Hypothesizing temporal plasticity of epigenetic processes as a mechanism of successful fear extinction, the present psychotherapy-epigenetic study for we believe the first time investigated MAOA methylation changes during the course of exposure-based cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in PD. MAOA methylation was compared between N=28 female Caucasian PD patients (discovery sample) and N=28 age- and sex-matched healthy controls via direct sequencing of sodium bisulfite-treated DNA extracted from blood cells. MAOA methylation was furthermore analyzed at baseline (T0) and after a 6-week CBT (T1) in the discovery sample parallelized by a waiting time in healthy controls, as well as in an independent sample of female PD patients (N=20). Patients exhibited lower MAOA methylation than healthy controls (P<0.001), and baseline PD severity correlated negatively with MAOA methylation (P=0.01). In the discovery sample, MAOA methylation increased up to the level of healthy controls along with CBT response (number of panic attacks; T0-T1: +3.37±2.17%), while non-responders further decreased in methylation (-2.00±1.28%; P=0.001). In the replication sample, increases in MAOA methylation correlated with agoraphobic symptom reduction after CBT (P=0.02-0.03). The present results support previous evidence for MAOA hypomethylation as a PD risk marker and suggest reversibility of MAOA hypomethylation as a potential epigenetic correlate of response to CBT. The emerging notion of epigenetic signatures as a mechanism of action of psychotherapeutic interventions may promote epigenetic patterns as biomarkers of lasting extinction effects.
KW  - Adult
KW  - Case-Control Studies
KW  - Cognitive Therapy
KW  - DNA Methylation
KW  - Epigenesis
KW  - Genetic
KW  - Female
KW  - Humans
KW  - Monoamine Oxidase/genetics
KW  - Panic Disorder/genetics
KW  - Panic Disorder/therapy
KW  - Sequence Analysis
KW  - DNA
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-164422
IS  - 6
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Brevik, Erlend J
A1  - van Donkelaar, Marjolein M. J.
A1  - Weber, Heike
A1  - Sánchez-Mora, Cristina
A1  - Jacob, Christian
A1  - Rivero, Olga
A1  - Kittel-Schneider, Sarah
A1  - Garcia-martinez, Iris
A1  - Aebi, Marcel
A1  - van Hulzen, Kimm
A1  - Cormand, Bru
A1  - Ramos-Quiroga, Josep A
A1  - Lesch, Klaus-Peter
A1  - Reif, Andreas
A1  - Ribases, Marta
A1  - Franke, Barbara
A1  - Posserud, Maj-Britt
A1  - Johansson, Stefan
A1  - Lundervold, Astri J.
A1  - Haavik, Jan
A1  - Zayats, Tetyana
T1  - Genome-wide analyses of aggressiveness in attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
JF  - American Journal of Medical Genetics Part B-Neuropsychiatric Genetics
N2  - Aggressiveness is a behavioral trait that has the potential to be harmful to individuals and society. With an estimated heritability of about 40%, genetics is important in its development. We performed an exploratory genome-wide association (GWA) analysis of childhood aggressiveness in attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) to gain insight into the underlying biological processes associated with this trait. Our primary sample consisted of 1,060 adult ADHD patients (aADHD). To further explore the genetic architecture of childhood aggressiveness, we performed enrichment analyses of suggestive genome-wide associations observed in aADHD among GWA signals of dimensions of oppositionality (defiant/vindictive and irritable dimensions) in childhood ADHD (cADHD). No single polymorphism reached genome-wide significance (P<5.00E-08). The strongest signal in aADHD was observed at rs10826548, within a long noncoding RNA gene (beta = -1.66, standard error (SE) = 0.34, P = 1.07E-06), closely followed by rs35974940 in the neurotrimin gene (beta = 3.23, SE = 0.67, P = 1.26E-06). The top GWA SNPs observed in aADHD showed significant enrichment of signals from both the defiant/vindictive dimension (Fisher's P-value = 2.28E-06) and the irritable dimension in cADHD (Fisher's P-value = 0.0061). In sum, our results identify a number of biologically interesting markers possibly underlying childhood aggressiveness and provide targets for further genetic exploration of aggressiveness across psychiatric disorders.
KW  - Large multicenter ADHD
KW  - Antisocial behavior
KW  - Diagnostic approach
KW  - Rating scale
KW  - Gene
KW  - Deficit/hyperactivity disorder
KW  - Susceptibility loci
KW  - Conduct disorder
KW  - Association
KW  - Adult
KW  - ADHD
KW  - Aggression
KW  - GWAS
Y1  - 2016
U6  - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-188116
VL  - 171B
IS  - 5
ER  -