rs11098403 polymorphism near NDST3 is associated with a reduced risk of schizophrenia in a Han Chinese population

Tubulin deacetylase NDST3 modulates lysosomal acidification: Implications in neurological diseases

Neurological diseases (NDs), featured by progressive dysfunctions of the nervous system, have become a growing burden for the aging populations. N-Deacetylase and N-sulfotransferase 3 (NDST3) is known to catalyze deacetylation and N-sulfation on disaccharide substrates. Recently, NDST3 is identified as a novel deacetylase for tubulin, and its newly recognized role in modulating microtubule acetylation and lysosomal acidification provides fresh insights into ND therapeutic approaches using NDST3 as a target. Microtubule acetylation and lysosomal acidification have been reported to be critical for activities in neurons, implying that the regulators of these two biological processes, such as the previously known microtubule deacetylases, histone deacetylase 6 (HDAC6) and sirtuin 2 (SIRT2), could play important roles in various NDs. Aberrant NDST3 expression or tubulin acetylation has been observed in an increasing number of NDs, including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and frontotemporal dementia (ALS/FTD), schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, Alzheimer's disease (AD), and Parkinson's disease (PD), suggesting that NDST3 is a key player in the pathogenesis of NDs and may serve as a target for development of new treatment of NDs.

NDST3 deacetylates α-tubulin and suppresses V-ATPase assembly and lysosomal acidification

Lysosomes are key organelles maintaining cellular homeostasis in health and disease. Here, we report the identification of N‐deacetylase and N‐sulfotransferase 3 (NDST3) as a potent regulator of lysosomal functions through an unbiased genetic screen. NDST3 constitutes a new member of the histone deacetylase (HDAC) family and catalyzes the deacetylation of α‐tubulin. Loss of NDST3 promotes assembly of the V‐ATPase holoenzyme on the lysosomal membrane and thereby increases the acidification of the organelle. NDST3 is downregulated in tissues and cells from patients carrying the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeat expansion linked to the neurodegenerative diseases amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). Deficiency in C9orf72 decreases the level of NDST3, and downregulation of NDST3 exacerbates the proteotoxicity of poly‐dipeptides generated from the C9orf72 hexanucleotide repeats. These results demonstrate a previously unknown regulatory mechanism through which microtubule acetylation regulates lysosomal activities and suggest that NDST3 could be targeted to modulate microtubule and lysosomal functions in relevant diseases.

Association study of NDST3 gene for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population

The NDST3 gene at 4q26 was a functional candidate gene for mental disorders. Recently, a novel genome-wide significant risk locus at chromosome 4q26 was identified and the top single nucleotide polymorphism rs11098403 in the vicinity of NDST3 gene was reported to confer risk of schizophrenia in Caucasian. Nevertheless, association between NDST3 gene polymorphisms and schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, or major depressive disorders has not been well studied in the Han Chinese population. To further investigate whether NDST3 is a risk gene for these mental disorders, we genotyped and analyzed eight tag SNPs (rs11098403, rs10857057, rs2389521, rs4833564, rs6837896, rs7689157, rs3817274, rs609512) covering NDST3 gene in 1,248 schizophrenia cases, 1,056 major depression cases, 1,344 bipolar disorder cases, and 1,248 controls of Chinese origin. However, there was no significant difference in allelic or genotypic frequency observed between each case group and healthy controls. Accordingly, our study does not support that the NDST3 gene plays a major role in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and major depressive disorder in the Han Chinese population.

A comprehensive analysis of NDST3 for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in Han Chinese

A novel susceptibility locus (rs11098403) for schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (BD) was identified in an Ashkenazi Jewish population by a recent large-scale genome-wide association study. The rs11098403 is located in the vicinity of the gene encoding N-deacetylase/N-sulfotransferase (heparan glucosaminyl) 3, (NDST3). This study aimed to replicate the results in a Han Chinese population and then potentially extend these findings. We performed a two-stage study to investigate the association of NDST3 with the schizophrenia and BD risk in the Han Chinese. In stage 1, a total of 632 patients with schizophrenia, 654 patients with BD and 684 healthy controls were recruited from the Shanghai region. In stage 2, 522 schizophrenia patients and 547 normal subjects were enrolled from the Hangzhou region. Then, we conducted a meta-analysis based on the present literature. In stage 1, the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs11098403 showed a significant association with schizophrenia (corrected P=0.005). The frequency of the rs11098403 G allele was significantly lower among schizophrenia patients than among the controls (odds ratio (OR)=0.68, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.55-0.84, corrected P=0.002). No significant difference was observed in individual SNP marker genotypes or allele distributions between the BD and control groups. In stage 2, the association of rs11098403 with schizophrenia could be validated (genotypic P=0.001 and allelic P=0.0003). After pooling all data from 1861 patients with schizophrenia and 2081 controls, we observed a significant association of the rs11098403 G allele with schizophrenia (Z=5.56, P<0.001), with an OR=0.70 (95% CI: 0.61-0.79). Then, we performed an expression quantitative trait loci analysis to investigate the functional effect of rs11098403 on NDST3 expression in the brain. We observed a significant association of rs11098403 with NDST3 expression in the hippocampus (P=0.027), although the significance did not survive after multiple testing correction. Our findings provided preliminary evidence that rs11098403 might modify the genetic risk of schizophrenia in the Han Chinese. Further investigations are warranted to identify the precise mechanism regulating brain NDST3 expression in the Han Chinese. These results would help to explain the pathophysiological mechanism of schizophrenia.

TSNARE1 polymorphisms are associated with schizophrenia susceptibility in Han Chinese

t-SNARE domain containing 1 gene (TSNARE1) is located at human chromosome 8q24.3, and may play a crucial role in intracellular protein transport and synaptic transmission. Recently, a large-scale meta-analysis of genome-wide association study dataset identified that rs10098073 and rs4129585, two single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) within TSNARE1, were closely associated with the risk of schizophrenia in Caucasians. However, this finding has not been validated in other populations or ethnic groups thus far. In the current study, we conducted a case-control study to confirm the association of these two SNPs with the schizophrenia risk in a Han Chinese population comprising 440 schizophrenia patients and 450 control subjects. According to the genotype data of Han Chinese from Beijing in 1,000 Genomes Project database, rs10098073 and rs4129585 were located in one haplotype block and were in almost complete linkage disequilibrium (D' = 1, r (2) ≥ 0.952). Therefore, only rs10098073 was selected for the subsequent analysis. We showed for the first time that the minor allele (A) of rs10098073 was associated with a reduced risk of schizophrenia (OR = 0.753; 95 % CI 0.613-0.924; P = 0.007). Furthermore, we found that the A allele of rs10098073 reduced the schizophrenia risk through a recessive manner (A/A vs. A/C + C/C, OR = 0.563; 95 % CI 0.357-0.89; P = 0.013, P Bonferroni corrected = 0.026) rather than a dominant manner (A/A + A/C vs. C/C, OR = 0.762; 95 % CI 0.586-0.992; P = 0.043, P Bonferroni corrected = 0.086). Taken together, these findings demonstrate a significant association between TSNARE1 polymorphisms and schizophrenia risk in a Han Chinese population, suggesting TSNARE1 may represent a susceptibility gene for this disease.