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Development of molecular pathology tests for allelic variation in the serotonin transport gene
Author(s) -
Reyes Marie,
Kilpatrick Kathleen,
Bearer Elaine
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.26.1_supplement.lb500
Subject(s) - serotonin transporter , allele , gene , anxiety disorder , anxiety , biology , genetics , traumatic stress , psychology , psychiatry , genotype
Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that occurs after a life‐threatening event in susceptible people. PTSD is characterized by persistent re‐experiencing the event, avoidance/numbing, and persistent arousal, resulting in severe loss of normal social functioning and often gives rise to co‐morbidity of other disorders. Some with PTSD experience relief from drugs that block the serotonin reuptake, implicating the serotonin transporter (SERT) in this disorder. Human populations have several variants of the SERT gene, primarily a long (L) and short (S) form of the promoter that modulate the amount of SERT expressed. We are developing a molecular pathology test to detect these alleles that can then be correlated with PTSD incidence, response to SSRI drugs, and relationship to structural changes in the brain. We are developing a PCR‐based test using DNA from ARPE19 cell line and primers that flank the promoter region (Mellman et Al. 1996, Gerlernter et Al. 1993). Nested primers and sequencing confirmed the specificity of this test for allelic variation in the promoter of the SERT gene in human chromosomes. We next plan to apply this test to human combat veterans with and without PTSD to determine the distribution of these alleles and correlate their presence with the clinical disorder. We expect that PTSD has several different underlying susceptibilities and SERT variation may not be 100% concordant.