Lack of Association of FLT3 rs2504235 and Absence of SLITRK1 var321 in Patients with Tic Disorders from Guangdong Province, China

Abstract

Ming Gao,1 Haisheng Lin,2 Bingxiao Li,3 Junjie Wen,3 Yingying Wang,1 Zhanhui Zhang,4,* Wenxiong Chen2,* 1Department of Neurology, First Affiliated Hospital of Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510630, People’s Republic of China; 2Department of Neurology, Guangzhou Women and Children’s Medical Center, Guangzhou Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510120, People’s Republic of China; 3Department of Pediatrics, First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou, Guangdong, 510630, People’s Republic of China; 4Clinical Medicine Research Institute, First Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, Guangzhou, 510630, People’s Republic of China*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Zhanhui ZhangFirst Affiliated Hospital, Jinan University, 613 West Huangpu Avenue, Tianhe, Guangzhou 510630, Guangdong, People’s Republic of China, Tel [phone], Email [email protected]: Tic disorders (TDs) are highly polygenic and heritable neurodevelopmental disorders characterized by the presence of movements (motor tics) and/or vocalizations (phonic tics). SLITRK1 is a pathogenic variation of TD, and in a recent genome-wide association study in those of European ancestry, a single-nucleotide polymorphism (rs2504235) in the FLT3 gene was significantly associated with TDs/Tourette’s syndrome. However, these results need to be proved in different populations. This study aimed to determine whether these two genetic variants were also associated with TD patients in south China.Methods: A total of 116 child TD patients and 114 healthy controls were included. All children underwent peripheral blood sampling for genomic DNA extraction. Gene fragments with two single-nucleotide polymorphisms were amplified by PCR and sequenced by Sanger chain termination before genotype analysis.Results: SLITRK1 var321 was not observed in any of the TD patients or controls. No significant difference was observed in allelic frequencies or genotypic distributions of rs2504235 between TD patients and controls.Conclusion: Our results provide no evidence to support the previous conclusion that SLITRK1 var321 plays a major role in TDs, and FLT3 rs2504235 was not significantly associated with TDs in our cohort.Keywords: tic disorders, Tourette’s syndrome, SLITRK1, SLIT and NTRK like family member 1, FLT3, Fms related receptor tyrosine kinase 3

Keywords

• tic disorders
• tourette syndrome
• slitrk1 (slit and ntrk like family member 1)
• flt3 (fms related receptor tyrosine kinase 3)