A recent study by a group of hundreds of researchers from 45 countries that analyzed the genetic makeup of schizophrenia has identified a large number of specific genes that may play an important role in the psychiatric disorder. The study, published April 4 in the journal Nature, analyzed the DNA of 76,755 people with schizophrenia and 2,43,649 people to better understand genes and biological processes to better understand the condition.
According to the World Health Organization, schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that most often affects people in late adolescence or early adulthood and affects approximately one in 300 people worldwide at any given time. This disorder is characterized by significant impairment in the way we perceive reality and behavior related to limited speech, restricted experience and expression of emotions, inability to experience interest or pleasure, and social withdrawal, among others.
The Psychiatric Genomics Consortium study, led by Cardiff University scientists, found a greater number of genetic links to schizophrenia in the DNA blueprint of the human body in 287 different regions of the genome.
According to the international team of researchers, this global study sheds the strongest light yet on the genetic basis of schizophrenia. For the study, researchers included more than 7,000 people of African American or Latino descent. This was done to ensure that advances from genetic studies could benefit people beyond those of European ancestry. Their analysis showed that the genetic risk for schizophrenia is seen in genes concentrated in brain cells called neurons, but not in any other tissue or cell type. This finding suggests that it is the biological role of these cells that is important in schizophrenia.
The findings also explain how it is abnormal neuron function that affects multiple areas of the brain, which may explain the diverse symptoms of schizophrenia, including hallucinations, delusions, and problems with thinking clearly. Co-lead author Professor Michael O’Donovan, from the Department of Psychological Medicine and Clinical Neuroscience at Cardiff University, said in a statement: “Previous research has shown links between schizophrenia and several unknown DNA sequences, but rarely a link. possible findings for specific genes.”
O’Donovan said that the current study not only significantly increased the number of those associations, but researchers are now able to link many of them to specific genes, a difficult step toward understanding and identifying the causes of schizophrenia. is travel. new treatments.
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