A single nucleotide polymorphism in the HOMER1 gene is associated with sleep latency and theta power in sleep electroencephalogram

• Published in: PloS one 2020-07, Vol.15 (7), p.e0223632
• Main Authors: Pedrazzoli, Mario, Mazzotti, Diego Robles, Ribeiro, Amanda Oliveira, Mendes, Juliana Viana, Bittencourt, Lia Rita Azeredo, Tufik, Sergio
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: AMPA receptors; Apnea; Biology and Life Sciences; Brazil; Central nervous system; Clustering; Deoxyribonucleic acid; DNA; EEG; Electroencephalography; Epidemiology; Female; Gene polymorphism; Genetic aspects; Genotype; Genotype & phenotype; Genotyping; Glutamate; Glutamate receptors; Glutamic acid receptors; Glutamic acid receptors (metabotropic); Homeostasis; Homer Scaffolding Proteins - genetics; Homer Scaffolding Proteins - physiology; Humanities; Humans; Latency; Male; Medicine and Health Sciences; Nervous system; Neurosciences; Neurotransmitters; Nucleotides; Phenotypes; Physiological aspects; Polymorphism; Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide; Polysomnography; Population; Psychobiology; Rapid eye movement state; Receptors, Metabotropic Glutamate - metabolism; REM sleep; Research and Analysis Methods; Single nucleotide polymorphisms; Single-nucleotide polymorphism; Sleep; Sleep (REM); Sleep and wakefulness; Sleep disorders; Sleep Latency - genetics; Socioeconomic factors; Variance analysis
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223632

Glutamate is the most excitatory neurotransmitter in the central nervous system and it is involved in the initiation and maintaining of waking and rapid-eye-movement (REM) sleep. Homer proteins act in the trafficking and/or clustering of metabotropic glutamate receptors, and polymorphisms in the HOMER1 gene have been associated with phenotypes related to glutamate signaling dysregulation. In this study, we report the association of a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the HOMER1 gene (rs3822568) with specific aspects of sleep in a sample of the Brazilian population. To accomplish this, 1,042 individuals were subjected to a full-night polysomnography, and a subset of 983 subjects had rs3822568 genotyping data available. When compared with the A allele carriers, GG genotyped individuals showed higher sleep latency, lower sleep efficiency, reduced number of arousals per hour, lower apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) and lower theta spectral power. In summary, the present findings suggest that the rs3822568 polymorphism in the HOMER1 gene is associated with sleep EEG profiles and might have an impact on sleep quality and sleep structure, with potential to explain inter-individual variation in sleep homeostasis.