The effect of brain-derived neurotrophic factor single nucleotide polymorphism on memory of university students

Brain derived neurotropic factor (BDNF) is one of the most abundant neurotrophic factors in the adult brain associated with synaptic plasticity, learning, memory and reinforcement of cognitive processes. The advent of val66met polymorphism in codon 66 of BDNF gene, disrupt the secretion of this protein. So, the purpose of the study is investigation of the effect of brain-derived neurotrophic factor single nucleotide polymorphism on memory score and memory quotient.

One hundred students from University of Kashan, Iran (mean age 21/60 ± 2/20) were randomly selected. After extraction of Genomic DNA, implementation of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) by forward primer 5-ACTCTGGAGAGCGTGAAT-3 and reverse primer 5-ATACTGTCACACACGCTG-3, analyzing PCR by 1.5 percent Electrophoresis Gel, and in the end sequencing by ABI PRISM 7000 Sequencing Analyzer, 46 participants were identified without val66met polymorphism while 54 participants were affected by the polymorphism (met-carrier). We used from Wechsler memory test to assess memory score and memory quotient of participants. Also, we used from SPSS software and Shapirovilc and multivariate analysis of variance tests to survey normality of distribution of data and test the research hypothesis.

Results showed people without the polymorphism were significantly better than met-carriers in memory score and memory quotient (P<0.001). The study of Wechsler's subscales showed that this superiority was more affected by logical memory subscales and associative learning.

In general, the results represent the effect of val66met polymorphism on memory and memory quotient, so that the existence of this polymorphism in some people may weaken their ability in compression with people without polymorphism, due to disruption of BDNF secretion.