Hunter researchers have helped unearth more than 100 genetic variants associated with schizophrenia after contributing to the largest genome study of the disease in the world.
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The results, published Thursday in the world-leading publication Nature, offer significant insights into susceptibility factors and provide promising therapeutic targets.
Previously, only 30 genetic regions had been identified.
Professor Rodney Scott, Associate Professor Carmel Loughland, Professor Ulli Schall, Emeritus Professor Patricia Michie and Associate Professor Frans Henskens were part of the Psychiatric Genomics Consortium – comprising more than 80 institutions – that co-ordinated the investigation.
Data from the Newcastle-run Australian Schizophrenia Research Bank was pooled into a sample of 150,000 people, 37,000 of whom had been diagnosed with schizophrenia.
This enabled researchers to detect 108 genetic regions (known as loci) where the DNA sequence for schizophrenia patients differed from those in people without the disease.
Professor Scott said family history studies had indicated a genetic component but researchers now had leads to follow rather than “scrambling around in the dark”.
“It doesn’t mean we can predict who will develop schizophrenia but it gives us tremendous insight into the underlying biology,” he said.
“The few drugs currently developed for the disease are designed to subdue the patient, they don’t target the mechanisms giving rise to schizophrenic behaviours.
“Intriguingly, there appears to be some similarities to the loci identified in multiple sclerosis, indicating the strong likelihood of an immune response element to schizophrenia,” Professor Scott said.
“Something is going on in terms of environment, which is just as powerful as in MS, and without that trigger a person possibly won’t get schizophrenia.”