Objective Animal evidence and genetic studies suggest that (homer homolog 1) is usually involved in the etiology of suicidal behavior and major depression disorder (MDD). might affect the transcription of the gene through interacting with a reliable transcription factor as found by three of four bioinformatics tools. In addition, close correlations between impulsiveness and NEO personality five factors were found in SA and MDD patients, which provide a possible way to assess the impulsiveness of patients through subjects personality profiles for Hong Kong Chinese. Conclusions The rs2290639 polymorphism was significantly associated with susceptibility to SA in Hong Kong Chinese affected by psychiatric disorders, which might be explained by the potentially functional role of this polymorphism. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this buy A 967079 article (doi:10.1186/s40064-016-2404-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. rs2290639, Meta-analysis, Functional role, Psychometric properties Background Approximately 1 million people worldwide die by suicide each year, accounting for 1.5?% of death by all causes (Mann 2003). Completed suicide is the 10th leading cause of death worldwide and suicide attempts (i.e. non-fatal suicidal Rabbit polyclonal to CREB1 behavior) is usually up to 20 occasions more frequent than buy A 967079 completed suicide (Hawton and van Heeringen 2009; Varnik 2012), which confirms that suicidal behavior means a heavy burden around the health-care system and alerts the severity of its corrosive interpersonal impact (Miller et al. 2012b). Suicidal behavior is generally regarded as a complex health and interpersonal issue that is believed to manifest as a combination of many factors, including environmental and genetic factors (Sher 2011). Genetic studies, such as family, twin and adoption studies, have consistently exhibited that genetic factors appear to be involved in suicidal behavior (Wender et al. 1986; buy A 967079 Roy et al. 1997; Li et al. 2010). These studies also illustrate that this predisposition to suicidal behavior is usually partly dependent on the presence of psychiatric disorders, such as bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism and major depressive disorder disorder (MDD). Among these diseases, MDD is the most important predicting factor of suicidal behavior and eventually about 10?% of MDD patients may end up taking their lives by committing suicide (Winokur and Tsuang 1975). In addition, a large body of evidence indicates that various neural abnormalities, such as the dysfunction of glutamate receptor signaling and the reduced number and abnormal morphology of dendritic spines, are involved in the pathogenesis of many different brain diseases and suicidal behavior (Giuffrida et al. 2005; Govek et al. 2004; Szumlinksi et al. 2005). Homer homolog 1 gene (gene may be an important candidate gene in the etiology of MDD and suicidal behavior. HOMER1a is usually a short isoform of HOMER1 and has a low expression level under normal conditions, but its expression level increases significantly after receiving neuronal activation (Brakeman et al. 1997). HOMER1b and 1c, the long isoforms of HOMER1, are constitutively expressed in vivo and in vitro without any activation (Kato et al. 1998). Both of the short and long isoforms share a conserved amino-terminal Enabled/vasodilator-stimulated phosphoprotein homolog 1 (EVH1) domain name. This domain has a strong binding affinity to a proline-rich sequence, which can be found in Group 1 metabotropic glutamate receptors, NMDA glutamate receptor and scaffolding protein SHANK (Tu et al. 1998; Naisbitt et al. 1999; Hayashi et al. 2009). Moreover, Hayashi et al. exhibited that HOMER1 and SHANK together formed a mesh-like matrix structure, which could serve as an assembly platform for other postsynaptic density (PSD) protein, such as mGluR1/5, NMDA receptor and IP3 receptor (Hayashi et al. 2009; Shiraishi-Yamaguchi and Furuichi 2007). In addition, both long and short isoforms of HOMER1 protein could regulate cell-surface targeting and clustering of mGluR1/5 (Roche et al. 1999; Ango et al. 2002; Serge et al. 2002). SHANK protein is an adaptor for the NMDA receptor/PSD-95 complex (Shiraishi-Yamaguchi and Furuichi 2007). Thus, we believe that HOMER1 protein has the ability to interact directly with mGluR1/5 and indirectly with NMDA receptors at glutamatergic synapses. Moreover, the HOMER1.