Effects of the CACNA1C risk allele on neurocognition in patients with schizophrenia and healthy individuals

Recent genetic association studies have identified the A-allele of rs1006737 within CACNA1C as a risk factor for schizophrenia as well as mood disorders. Some evidence suggests that this polymorphism plays a role in cognitive function both in schizophrenia patients and healthy individuals; however, the precise nature of this association remains unclear. Here we investigated the possible association of this polymorphism with a wide range of neurocognitive functions in schizophrenia patients and in healthy subjects. Schizophrenia patients exhibited significantly poorer performance on all the cognitive domains as compared to healthy controls. In patients, A-allele carriers demonstrated significantly worse logical memory performance than the G-allele homozygotes. In controls, no significant association was observed between the genotype and any of the cognitive domains examined. These results add to the literature suggesting that rs1006737 may be associated with schizophrenia through its detrimental effect on endophenotypic traits.