Association between the methyl-CpG-binding domain protein 5 gene and depressive symptoms in a Mexican population: results from the MxGDAR/Encodat cohort.

Objective: To explore the association of 75 candidate genes previously reported in subjects with anxiety symptoms (AS) and depressive symptoms (DS) with such symptomatology in a Mexican cohort.

Methods: The sample included 2,012 individuals from the Mexican Genomic Database for Addiction Research (MxGDAR/Encodat) cohort: 198 with AS, 266 with DS, 66 with both anxiety and depressive symptoms (ADS), and 1,482 healthy controls. The Diagnostic Interview for Psychosis and Affective Disorders (DI-PAD) screening questionnaire was used to evaluate lifetime AS and DS. The sample was genotyped with the commercial microarray PsychArray BeadChip. We identified 707 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) of 75 genes previously associated with AS and DS. The PLINK logistic regression approach was performed to analyze the association between these SNPs and AS, DS, and ADS.

Results: The analysis identified significant associations of LAMA SNP rs2437092 (p = 3.89 × 10(-5)) and MYO1H SNP rs11066591 (p = 4.06 × 10(-5)) with anxiety and depressive symptoms. Additionally, MBD5 SNPs rs7578002 and rs1234428 were associated with DS (p = 7.9 × 10(-6) and p = 1.94 × 10(-5), respectively). However, after adjustment for age, sex, and the three genetic principal components, only the associations of rs7578002 and rs1234428 with DS remained (p = 5.85 × 10(-5) and p = 8.15 × 10(-5), respectively).

Conclusions: Our study replicated the association between MBD5 and DS. The MBD5 protein is involved in gene silencing, suggesting its potential implication in the development of DS in the Mexican population.