[ad_1]
A group of international doctors has discovered the genes that contribute to the development of ADHD, autism spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, major depression and schizophrenia.
A collaborative research project by the University of Queensland and the Vrije Universiteit of Amsterdam has badyzed more than 400,000 people to determine the genes behind these five psychiatric disorders.
Professor Christel Middeldorp, UQ psychiatrist, said that several sets of genes marked the five disorders.
Before this badysis, we knew that many psychiatric disorders were related to each other because of their inherited nature.
We often see many family members with mental illness in a family, but not necessarily with the same disorder.
We examined whether specific sets of genes were involved in the development of multiple disorders, which genes are not only related, for example, to ADHD, but also to the other four psychiatric disorders.
These are genes that play a role in the same biological pathway or are active in the same type of tissue.
Highly expressed genes in the brain have been shown to affect different disorders, and some genes have been badociated with all the diseases we have studied.
This shows that there is a common set of genes that increase your risk for the five disorders. "
Professor Christel Middeldorp, psychiatrist of UQ
Dr. Anke Hammerschlag, lead author of the study, explained that this was due to the biological pathways shared by the genes in the brain.
"We have discovered that there are common biological mechanisms acting on disorders that all indicate functions in brain cells," said Dr. Hammerschlag.
"The synapse plays a vital role because it is the point of connection between the cells of the brain where the cells communicate with each other.
"We have also found that genes that are particularly active in the brain are important, while genes that are active in other tissues do not play a role."
New drugs could potentially target these common pathways.
"Our results are an important first step towards developing new drugs that can be effective for a wide range of patients, regardless of their exact diagnosis," she said.
"This knowledge will bring us closer to the development of a more effective personalized medicine."
Source:
Journal reference:
Hammerschlag, A.R. et al. (2019) The sets of synaptic genes expressed by the brain relate to the shared genetic risk in five psychiatric disorders. Psychological medicine. doi.org/10.1017/S0033291719001776.
[ad_2]
Source link
