The association of genetic variation in CACNA1C with resting-state functional connectivity in youth bipolar disorder

BACKGROUND: CACNA1C rs1006737 A allele, identified as a genetic risk variant for bipolar disorder (BD), is associated with anomalous functional connectivity in adults with and without BD. Studies have yet to investigate the association of CACNA1C rs1006737 with resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) in youth BD. METHODS: Participants included 139 youth with BD-I, -II, or -not otherwise specified, ages 13–20 years, including 27 BD A-carriers, 41 BD non-carriers, 32 healthy controls (HC) A-carriers, and 39 HC non-carriers. Anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), amygdala, and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) were examined as regions-of-interest in seed-to-voxel analyses. General linear models included main effects of diagnosis and rs1006737, and an interaction term, controlling for age, sex, and race. RESULTS: We observed a main effect of BD diagnosis on rsFC between the right amygdala and the right occipital pole (p = 0.02), and a main effect of rs1006737 genotypes on rsFC between the right OFC and bilateral occipital cortex (p < 0.001). Two significant BD diagnosis-by-CACNA1C rs1006737 interactions were also identified. The A allele was associated with positive rsFC between the right ACC and right amygdala in BD but negative rsFC in HC (p = 0.01), and negative rsFC between the left OFC and left putamen in BD but positive rsFC in HC (p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This study found that the rs1006737 A allele, identified as a genetic risk variant for BD in adults, was differentially associated with rsFC in youth with BD in regions relevant to emotion, executive function, and reward. Future task-based approaches are warranted to better understand brain connectivity in relation to CACNA1C in BD. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s40345-022-00281-5.