The heritability of schizophrenia has been reported to be as high as ~80%, but 
the contribution of genetic variants identified to this heritability remains to 
be estimated. Long non-coding RNAs (LncRNAs) are involved in multiple processes 
critical to normal cellular function and dysfunction of lncRNA MIAT may 
contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. However, the genetic 
evidence of lncRNAs involved in schizophrenia has not been documented. Here, we 
conducted a two-stage association analysis on 8 tag SNPs that cover the whole 
MIAT locus in two independent Han Chinese schizophrenia case-control cohorts 
(discovery sample from Shanxi Province: 1093 patients with paranoid 
schizophrenia and 1180 control subjects; replication cohort from Jilin Province: 
1255 cases and 1209 healthy controls). In discovery stage, significant genetic 
association with paranoid schizophrenia was observed for rs1894720 (χ(2)=74.20, 
P=7.1E-18), of which minor allele (T) had an OR of 1.70 (95% CI=1.50-1.91). This 
association was confirmed in the replication cohort (χ(2)=22.66, P=1.9E-06, 
OR=1.32, 95%CI 1.18-1.49). Besides, a weak genotypic association was detected 
for rs4274 (χ(2)=4.96, df=2, P=0.03); the AA carriers showed increased disease 
risk (OR=1.30, 95%CI=1.03-1.64). No significant association was found between 
any haplotype and paranoid schizophrenia. The present studies showed that lncRNA 
MIAT was a novel susceptibility gene for paranoid schizophrenia in the Chinese 
Han population. Considering that most lncRNAs locate in non-coding regions, our 
result may explain why most susceptibility loci for schizophrenia identified by 
genome wide association studies were out of coding regions.