Variants in calcium voltage-gated channel subunit Alpha1 C-gene (CACNA1C) are associated with sleep latency in infants

• Published in: PloS one 2017-08, Vol.12 (8), p.e0180652-e0180652
• Main Authors: Kantojärvi, Katri, Liuhanen, Johanna, Saarenpää-Heikkilä, Outi, Satomaa, Anna-Liisa, Kylliäinen, Anneli, Pölkki, Pirjo, Jaatela, Julia, Toivola, Auli, Milani, Lili, Himanen, Sari-Leena, Porkka-Heiskanen, Tarja, Paavonen, Juulia, Paunio, Tiina
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Analysis; Attention; Behavior disorders; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomarkers; Bipolar disorder; Bipolar Disorder - genetics; Calcium; Calcium channels (voltage-gated); Calcium Channels, L-Type - genetics; Child, Preschool; Children & youth; Consolidation; Consortia; Disorders; Female; Finland; Genetic aspects; Genetic factors; Genetic Predisposition to Disease; Genetic variance; Genetic variation; Genome-Wide Association Study; Genomes; Genomics; Girls; Health aspects; Hospitals; Humans; Infant; Infants; Influence; Insomnia; Latency; Male; Medical imaging; Medicine and Health Sciences; Mental disorders; Night; Parents; People and Places; Pharmacy; Physical Sciences; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide - genetics; Polysomnography; Psychiatry; Schizophrenia; Schizophrenia - genetics; Sleep; Sleep - genetics; Sleep - physiology; Sleep Wake Disorders - genetics; Social sciences; Studies; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teenagers; Working groups
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0180652

Genetic variants in CACNA1C (calcium voltage-gated channel subunit alpha1 C) are associated with bipolar disorder and schizophrenia where sleep disturbances are common. In an experimental model, Cacna1c has been found to modulate the electrophysiological architecture of sleep. There are strong genetic influences for consolidation of sleep in infancy, but only a few studies have thus far researched the genetic factors underlying the process. We hypothesized that genetic variants in CACNA1C affect the regulation of sleep in early development. Seven variants that were earlier associated (genome-wide significantly) with psychiatric disorders at CACNA1C were selected for analyses. The study sample consists of 1086 infants (520 girls and 566 boys) from the Finnish CHILD-SLEEP birth cohort (genotyped by Illumina Infinium PsychArray BeadChip). Sleep length, latency, and nightly awakenings were reported by the parents of the infants with a home-delivered questionnaire at 8 months of age. The genetic influence of CACNA1C variants on sleep in infants was examined by using PLINK software. Three of the examined CACNA1C variants, rs4765913, rs4765914, and rs2239063, were associated with sleep latency (permuted P