Genes uncovered at the root of Psychiatric Illnesses
It is difficult to comprehend the basis of psychiatric disorders because there are many genetic variants that could possibly increase risk but are not enough to cause disease. A method was reported to an issue of the Cell Press journal by investigators, explaining how it could reveal how something too weak to produce a response could interact with other risk factors. Or how the nervous system is affected by environmental exposures. This study identifies a genetic variant that could possibly influence individuals to schizophrenia.Recent technology has benefitted this current study. This technology allows cells from patients to be rewired into persuaded pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs)
This technology takes patient’s skin cells and alters them into induced pluripotent stem cells(iPSCs), which then can transform into any kind of cell in the body. Scientists took stem cells from those with a genetic abnormality that advises increased sensitivity to schizophrenia, and they examined a loss during nerve growth that could trace to a certain gene called CYFIP1. This helps keep a nerve cell’s structure.The expression of this gene was stopped from growing mouse embryos by the scientists. They also noticed flaws in the growth of the cerebral cortex, a brain region that plays a crucial role in consciousness. Scientist then tried to discover how CYFIP could interact with other factors. The team found a way to increase Schizophrenia significantly was connected to mutations in two genes within a cellular pathway linked to CYFIP1. It had been discovered that multiple aspects within the same pathway could play a role in an individual’s risk for psychiatric disorders.
“We were able to use a set of cutting-edge tools to gain insight into a critical cellular process for normal brain development, the dysregulation of which may be a manifestation of a genetic predisposition for schizophrenia,” claims senior author Dr. Guo-li Ming, of Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.The team’s new method has led to a promising new approach for understand the reasons behind some of the most intractable psychiatric illnesses. New technology is also seen as reliable because it proves how it can shed light on understanding and treating human disorders. “Despite an enormous amount of time and resources devoted to producing solid, reproducible results in animal models, far too often, results from preclinical trials deviate from our expectations,” added co-author Dr. Hongjun Song. “The lack of access to disease-relevant human cell types has been a missing link in our current drug discovery process, which has now been resolved through advances in cellular reprogramming.”
