Short communication: catechol-O-methyltransferase allelic variation in relation to psychological and hormonal indices of stress in children and adolescents with chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS)

Chromosome 22q11.2 deletion syndrome (22q11.2DS) is a developmental disorder with high rates of anxiety and psychosis. Catechol-O-methyltransferase (COMT) regulates epinephrine (E), norepinephrine (NE), and dopamine (DA) and is implicated in both anxiety and psychotic disorders. The aim of this study was to determine how COMT variation relates to psychological anxiety and associated stress physiology responsiveness to better understand symptom heterogeneity in people with 22q11.2DS. We examined COMT allelic variation in relation to anxiety and hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) and sympathetic-adrenomedullary (SAM) hormonal stress indicators in 30 children and adolescents with 22q11.2DS. Contrary to expectation, individuals with the higher activity COMTval allele had higher anxiety levels versus those with the low activity (COMTmet) allele (p = 0.021; Glass' Δ = 0.69). Anxiety was not correlated with salivary cortisol (CORT) or alpha-amylase (sAA) in either group. Groups did not differ in CORT levels (p = 0.58), but the COMTmet group had higher sAA (p = 0.026; Glass' Δ = 0.67, uncorrected) suggesting greater SAM reactivity but not HPA activity. This suggests that COMT allelic variation may contribute to differences in acute SAM but not slower HPA stress reactivity in those with 22q11.2DS.