The gene NRG1 encodes neuregulin 1, a pleiotropic growth factor that is important in nervous system development and function. It has been implicated in the modulation of many processes of neural development, including neuronal migration, synapse formation, synaptic plasticity and neuronal survival (63). The SNP rs17664708 we reported here is located at the intron region of NRG1. We did not find any evidence supporting the functional role of this SNP involved in CaD. As it is the case for most genetic association studies, the associated SNP may not be the causal SNP but could represent a tag SNP which is in linkage disequilibrium with the surrounding causal variants. Further studies using a higher density SNP panel and deep sequencing technology are needed to fully characterize the genetic architecture of NRG1 and pinpoint the functional variants that could be involved in CaD.
