Analysis of relationship between prion protein polymorphisms and suicide behaviour

Prion is a kind of infectious protein and it is the main causative agent of a group of disease in human and animals that is known as "Infectious Spongioform Encephalopathies". Protein that is encoded by prion protein gene (PRNP) is related to neurologic diseases and programmed cell death and prion gene expression occurs basically in brain. This situtation reveals strongly the likelihood of a corelation between prion protein gene polymorphisims and suicide behaviour. Suicide phenomenon includes sociologic, historical, pyschologic, cultural, philosophic, religious, economical, existential dimensions. Biologically, there is likelihood of various variants of different proteins being associated with suicide behaviour. In this thesis it was investigated whether there is a significant relationship between prion protein polymorphisims and suicide behaviour. Fifty suicide victims referred to Mortuary for forensic autopsy were determined as study group and fifty healthy people as controls. DNA isolation, DNA quantifitation, Polymerase Chain Reaction and Sequence Analysis were perfomed on the samples obtained from individuals. Result of the analyses studies revealed a polymorfism (M129V) that can cause significant diffeence at 129'st codon. Repeat of this study on a larger population will provide better understanding of genetic factors. It is aimed in this study to determine genetic markers that can determine risk of suicide attemps and accordingly to prevent suicide incidents and to achieve more healthy social structure. Up to present time, there is no research published at national and international levels revealing the relation ship between the prion protein polymorphisims, prion gene polymorphisims and suicide behaviour. Keywords: Prion, Protein, Gene, Polimorphism, Suicide.