The following is the summary of “Correlation between variants of the CREB1 and GRM7 genes and risk of depression” published in the January 2023 issue of Psychiatry by Wang, et al.

It is hypothesized that the cAMP-response element binding protein1 (CREB1) and the metabotropic glutamate receptor 7 (GRM7) are implicated in the genesis of depression and that the genetic polymorphisms of these 2 proteins may influence a person’s susceptibility to depression. Therefore, this investigation was carried out to establish whether or not the CREB1 polymorphisms rs2253206 and rs10932201, in addition to the GRM7 polymorphism rs162209, are associated with an elevated risk of developing depression. 

We used polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism and DNA sequencing to compare the genetic variations rs2253206, rs10932201, and rs162209 in 479 patients diagnosed with depression and 329 healthy controls. The study found that the single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) rs2253206 and rs10932201 were significantly associated with an increased risk of developing depression. However, rs162209 was not found to be associated with an increased risk of depression in any of the study participants. 

When the data were analyzed after being stratified for several disease-related factors, none of the 3 polymorphisms were found to have an association with the onset of the disease, the severity of the disease, a family history of the disease, or a propensity toward suicidal behavior. According to the findings reported in this article, there may be a connection between the CREB1 polymorphisms rs2253206 and rs10932201 and the emergence of symptoms associated with depression.

Source: bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12888-022-04458-1