Several studies have examined the allelic association of a variety of genes encoding glutamate receptor subunits with AD or alcohol withdrawal phenomena (Wernicke et al. 2003, Foley et al. 2004, Rujescu et al. 2005, Tadic et al. 2005, Samochowiec et al. 2006, Schumann et al. 2008). Although none of these studies included GRIK1, the gene encoding the GluR5 kainate receptor subunit, we chose to focus on this gene because receptors containing the GluR5 subunit (as with those containing the GluR6 subunit) selectively bind topiramate (Gryder and Rogawski 2003, Kaminski et al. 2004), which could result in convergent validation of a role for this gene in AD-related phenotypes.
