TITLE:
Association of Bax and Bcl-2 Functional Polymorphisms and Protein Levels with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
AUTHORS:
Diana Avetyan, Arsen Arakelyan, Gohar Mkrtchyan
KEYWORDS:
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Apoptosis, BCL2, BAX, Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Biosciences and Medicines,
Vol.6 No.2,
February
26,
2018
ABSTRACT: Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disease influenced by both
environmental and genetic factors, which affects a patient’s quality of life
and social stability. Recent studies have shown that the pathogenesis of PTSD
is associated with apoptosis; however, the molecular mechanisms that cause such
damage are not well-understood. Also it is unclear whether these pathologic
alterations are genetically determined or caused by other factors. The aim of
this study was to investigate the genetic association of functional polymorphisms in genes coding for apoptosis-related Bcl-2 and
Bax proteins with PTSD as well as proteins levels in the blood of affected subjects. Methods: The study groups
consisted of 200 combat veterans with PTSD and an equal number of healthy
subjects with no family- or past-history of any psychiatric
disorders. Bax and Bcl-2 proteins levels in blood were measured by ELISA. DNA
samples were genotyped for SNPs using PCR-SSP. Results: According to our
results, PTSD patients are characterized by increased levels of apoptotic
proteins and the imbalance in the Bax/Bcl-2 ratio compared to healthy subjects.
Our results also demonstrate that rs956572*A minor allele of the BCL2 gene was overrepresented in patients with PTSD compared to healthy subjects. Conclusions: The results implicate Bcl-2 and Bax in pathogenesis of PTSD
on genetic and protein levels, though further studies on enlarged cohort and in
different populations are required.