Analysis of common genetic variation of anxiety disorders in essential tremor

Abstract Objective To explore the association of common genetic variation of anxiety disorders and essential tremor (ET). Methods We genotyped 25 anxiety-specific risk variants in a cohort of 478 unrelated ET patients and 505 age and gender-matched healthy controls from eastern China using a MassARRAY system. The association between candidate variants and ET patients were evaluated using gene-based analysis. Results A total of 159 patients (33.3%) had at least mild anxiety. In genotypic analysis, rs1187280 (NTRK2 gene), rs3807866 (TMEM106B gene), rs6557168 (ESR1 gene) and rs708012 (in an intergenic region) in the dominant models and rs1187280 (NTRK2 gene), TMEM106B rs3807866, rs708012 and rs7528604 (PDE4B) under the recessive model were found to be significantly associated with ET. In allelic analysis, the carriers of C allele of NTRK2 rs1187280, T allele of TMEM106B rs3807866, A allele of ESR1 rs6557168 and T allele of rs708012 occupy a larger proportion of ET patients compared with healthy controls. Conclusion Anxiety-specific risk SNPs of TMEM106B rs3807866 and ESR1 rs6557168 increase the risk for ET, while two SNPs of NTRK2 rs1187280 and rs708012 show a protective role.