Toxoplasma gondii Seropositivity Interacts with Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val105/158Met Variation Increasing the Risk of Schizophrenia Rovira, Paula Gutiérrez Martínez, Blanca Sorlozano Puerto, Antonio Gutiérrez Fernández, José Molina Rivas, Esther Rivera Sánchez, Margarita Martín Laguna, Victoria Torres González, Francisco Cervilla Ballesteros, Jorge Antonio COMT Toxoplasma gondii Gene–environment interaction Schizophrenia Infectious agents Case-control study Schizophrenia is a heterogeneous and severe psychotic disorder. Epidemiological findings have suggested that the exposure to infectious agents such as Toxoplasma gondii (T. gondii) is associated with an increased risk for schizophrenia. On the other hand, there is evidence involving the catechol- O-methyltransferase (COMT) Val105/158Met polymorphism in the aetiology of schizophrenia since it alters the dopamine metabolism. A case–control study of 141 patients and 142 controls was conducted to analyse the polymorphism, the prevalence of anti-T. gondii IgG, and their interaction on the risk for schizophrenia. IgG were detected by ELISA, and genotyping was performed with TaqMan Real- Time PCR. Although no association was found between any COMT genotype and schizophrenia, we found a significant association between T. gondii seropositivity and the disorder ( 2 = 11.71; p-value < 0.001). Furthermore, the risk for schizophrenia conferred by T. gondii was modified by the COMT genotype, with those who had been exposed to the infection showing a different risk compared to that of nonexposed ones depending on the COMT genotype ( 2 for the interaction = 7.28, p-value = 0.007). This study provides evidence that the COMT genotype modifies the risk for schizophrenia conferred by T. gondii infection, with it being higher in those individuals with the Met/Met phenotype, intermediate in heterozygous, and lower in those with the Val/Val phenotype. 2022-07-13T08:47:52Z 2022-07-13T08:47:52Z 2022-06-18 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Rovira, P... [et al.]. Toxoplasma gondii Seropositivity Interacts with Catechol-O-methyltransferase Val105/158Met Variation Increasing the Risk of Schizophrenia. Genes 2022, 13, 1088. [https://doi.org/10.3390/genes13061088] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/75982 10.3390/genes13061088 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 4.0 Internacional MDPI