TY - JOUR
T1 - BDNF variants may modulate long-term visual memory performance in a healthy cohort
AU - Avgan, Nesli
AU - Sutherland, Heidi G.
AU - Spriggens, Lauren K.
AU - Yu, Chieh
AU - Ibrahim, Omar
AU - Bellis, Claire
AU - Haupt, Larisa M.
AU - Shum, David H.K.
AU - Griffiths, Lyn R.
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by an Australian Research Council grant The Genetic Basis of Human Memory (Project ID: DP130101921). This work was also supported by infrastructure purchased with Australian Government EIF Super Science Funds as part of the Therapeutic Innovation Australia-Queensland Node project. We thank Miles Benton for his contribution in data preparation for targeted analysis.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.
Copyright:
Copyright 2017 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2017/3/17
Y1 - 2017/3/17
N2 - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in numerous cognitive functions including learning and memory. BDNF plays an important role in synaptic plasticity in humans and rats with BDNF shown to be essential for the formation of long-term memories. We previously identified a significant association between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265) and long-term visual memory (p-value = 0.003) in a small cohort (n = 181) comprised of healthy individuals who had been phenotyped for various aspects of memory function. In this study, we have extended the cohort to 597 individuals and examined multiple genetic variants across both the BDNF and BDNF-AS genes for association with visual memory performance as assessed by the Wechsler Memory Scale-Fourth Edition subtests Visual Reproduction I and II (VR I and II). VR I assesses immediate visual memory, whereas VR II assesses long-term visual memory. Genetic association analyses were performed for 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped on Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip arrays with the immediate and long-term visual memory phenotypes. While none of the BDNF and BDNF-AS variants were shown to be significant for immediate visual memory, we found 10 variants (including the Val66Met polymorphism (p-value = 0.006)) that were nominally associated, and three variants (two variants in BDNF and one variant in the BDNF-AS locus) that were significantly associated with long-term visual memory. Our data therefore suggests a potential role for BDNF, and its anti-sense transcript BDNF-AS, in long-term visual memory performance.
AB - Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is involved in numerous cognitive functions including learning and memory. BDNF plays an important role in synaptic plasticity in humans and rats with BDNF shown to be essential for the formation of long-term memories. We previously identified a significant association between the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism (rs6265) and long-term visual memory (p-value = 0.003) in a small cohort (n = 181) comprised of healthy individuals who had been phenotyped for various aspects of memory function. In this study, we have extended the cohort to 597 individuals and examined multiple genetic variants across both the BDNF and BDNF-AS genes for association with visual memory performance as assessed by the Wechsler Memory Scale-Fourth Edition subtests Visual Reproduction I and II (VR I and II). VR I assesses immediate visual memory, whereas VR II assesses long-term visual memory. Genetic association analyses were performed for 34 single nucleotide polymorphisms genotyped on Illumina OmniExpress BeadChip arrays with the immediate and long-term visual memory phenotypes. While none of the BDNF and BDNF-AS variants were shown to be significant for immediate visual memory, we found 10 variants (including the Val66Met polymorphism (p-value = 0.006)) that were nominally associated, and three variants (two variants in BDNF and one variant in the BDNF-AS locus) that were significantly associated with long-term visual memory. Our data therefore suggests a potential role for BDNF, and its anti-sense transcript BDNF-AS, in long-term visual memory performance.
KW - BDNF
KW - Genetics of memory
KW - Human memory
KW - Long-term visual memory
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85015943649&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/ijms18030655
DO - 10.3390/ijms18030655
M3 - Article
C2 - 28304362
AN - SCOPUS:85015943649
SN - 1422-0067
VL - 18
JO - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
JF - International Journal of Molecular Sciences
IS - 3
M1 - 655
ER -