In terms of functional mechanisms, we observed that the risk allele of rs1344706 is associated with higher ZNF804A expression in our analysis of the GeneVar data. That finding is compatible with the analysis of Riley and colleagues who reported that the risk allele at rs1344706 is associated with higher ZNF804A expression in human brain(10). However, while our analysis of allele specific expression confirms that rs1344706 is generally carried on a higher expression haplotype, it does not appear to be the eQTL responsible for higher expression, suggesting that the relationship between that SNP and expression is not relevant to disease. Alternatively, there may be additional eQTLs (and susceptibility alleles) at the locus that we have failed to uncover.
