Project Summary

Virginia L. Willour, Ph.D. (Young Investigator 2004) of Johns Hopkins University, notes that the only genome scan for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) that has been published to date identified one candidate region for a gene on chromosome 9p24 that met criteria for suggestive significance. Now, the Hopkins OCD Family study has collected DNA samples from fifty OCD pedigrees containing at least one pair of affected siblings, resulting in 59 independent OCD sib pairs. In the proposal, Dr. Willour aims to genotype the 50 Hopkins pedigrees using microsatellite markers on 9p24. If Dr. Willour can replicate the 9p24 finding, then she will genotype the best two candidate genes within the 9p24 signal using 15 SNPs and 100 Hopkins OCD family study trios in order to test for the presence of associated marker alleles or haplotypes. If the 9p24 finding is not replicated, then two other suitable candidate genes, such as brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) or catechol-o-methyltransferase (COMT) will be chosen.

Program Area: ANXIETY DISORDERS\Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

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