Four new genes linked to schizophrenia
Schizophrenia affects around one in 100 people
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Thursday, 31, Jul 2008 12:02
Researchers have discovered four new mutated gene regions associated with schizophrenia, according to studies published in the journal Nature.
Scientists behind the discovery hope it may help to lead to earlier diagnosis of the disorder and to produce new tailor-made drugs to treat it.
Schizophrenia affects around one in 100 people and is a common, chronic and often devastating brain disorder characterised by delusions and hallucinations.
The two new studies were the first to carry out large-scale surveys of schizophrenia patients.
Each saw the genes of around 3,000 to 5,000 patients from all over the world, and an equal number of controls, scanned for variations in their DNA sequence.
Four micro-deletions, or mutations – 15q13, 1q21 and 15q11 as well as 22q11 – were found to occur significantly more often in those with schizophrenia.
The international team of researchers also revealed that mutations are occurring at a far higher rate than thought possible – around one in every 10,000 people rather than one in every 10 million.
They say this partly explains why psychological disorders such as schizophrenia can appear 'out of the blue' in some families.
The mutations were found to be present in some individuals with schizophrenia as well as those with autism and a range of other psychological disorders, suggesting that the two conditions are not as separate as previously thought.
"Lots more work needs to be done, but what these discoveries will do is help us start to classify the sub-types of the illness so that individualised, targeted medicine is possible in the future," said Professor St Clair, chair in mental health at the University of Aberdeen, and an author on both papers.
Douglas Blackwood, professor of psychiatric genetics at the University of Edinburgh, added: "It is well recognised that schizophrenia has a variety of causes and several different factors can trigger episodes. But mutations, deletions and other variation in genes are probably the largest contributors.
"These are exciting new findings because the chromosomal abnormalities that have been described will be signposts to other genes involved in illness and hopefully lead on to new drug discoveries and novel treatment approaches."