Association Study of the Heat Shock Protein 90 Alpha (HSP90AA1) Gene Polymorphisms with Schizophrenia in a Polish Population

<b>Background/Objectives:</b> Schizophrenia (SCZ) is a highly heritable mental disorder with a complex polygenic genetic architecture. The heat shock protein 90 alpha (HSP90α), encoded by the <i>HSP90AA1</i> gene, is a molecular chaperone that is required for the proper folding and activity of many of the client proteins that are involved in numerous essential cellular pathways. In addition to its general chaperone activity, HSP90α plays a role in other neuronal contexts and was found to have an altered expression in SCZ, which makes <i>HSP90AA1</i> an attractive gene for association studies. The aim of this study was to determine whether the <i>HSP90AA1</i> polymorphisms (rs8005905, rs10873531, rs11621560, rs4947 and rs2298877) are involved in the risk of developing SCZ and its clinical picture in a Polish Caucasian population. <b>Methods</b>: A total of 1088 unrelated subjects (409 patients and 679 healthy controls) were included in the study. The SNPs were genotyped using a TaqMan 5'-exonuclease allelic discrimination assay. The results of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) were presented in the five-dimensional model. <b>Results</b>: None of the SNPs were associated with a predisposition to developing SCZ in either the single-marker or haplotype analysis including the results of gender-stratified analyses. However, the genotypes of rs11621560, rs4947 and rs2298877 SNPs were associated with the emotional distress (EMO) dimension score. <b>Conclusions</b>: The results of the present study indicate that <i>HSP90AA1</i> variants may have an impact on the psychopathology of SCZ, although larger studies are needed to clarify these findings.