Given the limited effectiveness of treatments for pathological anxiety, there is a pressing need to identify genetic markers that can aid the precise selection of treatments and optimize treatment response. Anxiety and startle response levels demonstrate a direct relationship, and previous literature suggests that exaggerated startle reactivity may serve as an endophenotype of pathological anxiety. In addition, genetic variants related to startle reactivity may play a role in the etiology of pathological anxiety. In the current study, we selected 22 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) related to startle reactivity in the literature, and examined their association with anxiety symptom severity across psychiatric disorders (n = 508), and in a subset of patients with an anxiety disorder (n = 298). Overall, none of the SNPs pass correction for multiple independent tests. However, across psychiatric patients, rs6323 from the monoamine oxidase A (MAOA) gene and rs324981 from the neuropeptide S receptor 1 (NPSR1) gene were nominally associated with baseline anxiety symptom severity (p = 0.017, 0.023). These preliminary findings provide support for investigating startle-related genetic variants to identify biomarkers of anxiety symptom severity.

中文翻译：

---

惊吓相关基因多态性对焦虑症状严重程度的影响。

鉴于治疗病理性焦虑症的有效性有限，迫切需要鉴定可帮助精确选择治疗方案并优化治疗反应的遗传标记。焦虑和惊吓反应水平表现出直接的关系，以前的文献表明，夸大的惊吓反应性可能是病理性焦虑的内表型。另外，与惊吓反应有关的遗传变异可能在病理性焦虑的病因中起作用。在本研究中，我们从文献中选择了22种与惊吓反应相关的单核苷酸多态性（SNP），并检查了它们与各种精神病患者（n = 508）和一部分焦虑症患者的焦虑症状严重程度的相关性（ n = 298）。总体，没有一个SNP通过多项独立测试的校正。然而，在精神病患者中，单胺氧化酶A（MAOA）基因的rs6323和神经肽S受体1（NPSR1）基因的rs324981在名义上与基线焦虑症状的严重程度相关（p = 0.017，0.023）。这些初步发现为研究与惊吓相关的遗传变异以鉴定焦虑症状严重程度的生物标志物提供了支持。