Vaccinia Related Kinase 2 (VRK2) expression in neurological disorders: schizophrenia, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis

Background: Schizophrenia (SCZ), epilepsy and Multiple Sclerosis (MS) are neurological disorders with increasing prevalence disturb the patients' lives and are regarded as burdens to the society. As multifactorial disorders, genetic susceptibility factors are involved in their pathogenesis. The Vaccinia-Related Kinase 2 (VRK2) gene codes for a serine threonine kinase recently reported to be contributed in the pathogenesis of some neurological disorders. In the present case-control study we compared the VRK2 gene expression in peripheral blood samples from SCZ, epilepsy and MS patients with normal subjects. Method: A total of 300 subjects comprising 50 patients in each disease category (SCZ, epilepsy and MS) as well as 150 healthy individuals (50 matched controls for each disorder) participated in the current study. Result: The VRK2 blood mRNA expression level was measured using the TaqMan real time PCR. The results demonstrated significant down-regulation of VRK2 gene in SCZ (P< 0.0001), epilepsy (P= 0.008) and MS (P= 0.029) compared with the healthy subjects. Conclusion: Consequently, VRK2 is suggested as a candidate gene for neurological disorders through its role in signaling pathway, the neuronal loss and stress response.