Genetic Association Analysis of Dopamine DRD3 Ser9Gly Polymorphism and Schizophrenia in Malay Population

Molecular components of the dopamine receptor (DRD3) play an important role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia (SCZ). Previous studies have demonstrated an association between the DRD3 Ser9Gly polymorphism and SCZ but the results have been inconclusive. In this study, we investigated this controversial association between the Ser9Gly (A/G) polymorphism and SCZ using Malay cases-control (261 cases/157 controls) samples. PCR-RFLP was performed to genotype the distribu­tion of the DRD3 Ser9Gly polymorphism. Both healthy control and SCHZ patient groups were in of Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for the analyzed ge­netic variability. There was a significant association between the genotype distribution DRD3 polymorphisms and SCZ (χ2= 9.359; df= 2; P= 0.009). We believe that further studies are required to examine the association between others dopamine-related genes and the behavioral phenotypes of SCZ.