Interaction of tumor necrosis alpha - G308A and epidermal growth factor gene polymorphisms in early-onset schizophrenia.

The study population comprised 94 Finnish patients with DSM-IV diagnosis of schizophrenia. The patients were placed into two subgroups according to medication response to conventional neuroleptics. The aim of the study was to examine the frequency of tumor necrosis factor -308 (G > A) polymorphism in these patients and their 98 control subjects who were age- and gender-matched blood donors. Associations between TNFalpha -308 polymorphism alone and between the interaction of TNFalpha and epidermal growth factor gene polymorphisms, and medication response and age at onset of schizophrenia were also studied. The frequencies of TNFalpha A-allele were 11.7 % in patients and 12.8% in controls. The difference was not significant (p = 0.75). TNFalpha -308 polymorphism was not associated with medication response. However, patients with EGF AA and TNFalpha AG/AA genotype had a lower age at onset of schizophrenia compared with the rest of the patients not having this combination (20.0 years, 3.3 vs. 30.2 years, 10.1 mean + SD; p < 0.001). The results support earlier findings according to which TNFalpha polymorphism is not associated with the incidence of schizophrenia. On the other hand, the role of cytokines in schizophrenia may involve genetic interactions predisposing early onset of illness.