Schizophrenia is the product of eight genetic mutations
Scientists have identified a total of 42 groups of genetic variations that increase the risk of suffering from schizophrenia. Contradicting the official position until yesterday, schizophrenia seems not to be a single disease, but rather It deals with a group of eight disorders of a different genetic nature, each with its own symptomatological picture differentiated.
Schizophrenia: new evidence indicates its cause
It is known that 80% of the risk of suffering from schizophrenia is determined by heredity genetics, but researchers have not been able to discern about the genes that cause this condition.
The latest study from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis inspected the genetic influences of more than four thousand people with schizophrenia, and differentiated gene clusters were discovered that cause up to eight different pictures of schizophrenia.
As stated by C. Robert Cloninger,
“Genes do not act on their own, but rather operate like a musical orchestra, to understand the way in which work, it is necessary to know not only the members of the orchestra separately but also the way in which they interact ”.
More aggressive in a group than individually
Dr. Cloninger and his research team matched some specific variations of genetic material in people with schizophrenia and healthy people. In some patients who suffered from hallucinations or delusions, scientists investigated the genetic characteristics and matched them with the symptoms of each of them, discovering what specific genetic alterations interact with each other, generating a 95% probability of suffering from schizophrenia. Each of the eight genetically distinct disorders has its own set of symptoms.
In another group of subjects, it was revealed that disorganized language is linked to a group of DNA alterations that lead to a 100% probability of developing schizophrenia.
Although individual genes are only weakly linked to the development of schizophrenia, some sets Genetic factors interact with each other, generating a high risk of suffering from schizophrenia, between 70 and 100%, according to the study.
This data reinforces the idea that it is difficult for people who suffer from these genetic alterations to be able to avoid the development of the disease. In total, the study found up to 42 groups of genetic alterations that increase the risk of schizophrenia.
New focus
"In previous research, scientists have tried to find associations between individual genes and schizophrenia," reports Dragan Svrakic, study co-author and professor of psychiatry at the University of Washington. “Several studies identified an association and it was difficult to refute. The next logical step in schizophrenia research was to check that genes do not act correctly. isolated, but rather they work together, altering the structure and functions of the brain, which causes the disease ”, concludes.
Svrakic argued that only when researchers were able to categorize the genetic alterations and the symptoms of the patients into groups, they found that certain specific groups of genetic variations work together to cause specific types of symptoms.
The researchers separated the patients based on the type and intensity of their symptoms, such as their problems organizing ideas and thoughts, lack of initiative, or disconnect between emotion and thought.
The results indicated that the symptomatological profiles are the product of eight qualitatively differentiated disorders, which in turn are the result of particular genetic conditions. The researchers said that these new findings could change the approach to understanding the causes, genetic or acquired, of other complex disorders of a non-psychiatric nature.
Experts are hopeful that these results may point the way to improved diagnosis and treatment of schizophrenia.