Scientists discover new risk genes

Recently, an article published in the scientific journal normal genetics He announced the discovery of two genes associated with schizophrenia. The findings, according to the scientists, have the potential to increase our understanding of brain diseases and could lead to new treatment approaches. This is the first investigation into the risk of developing schizophrenia in different ethnic groups.

In general, as with many neurological conditions, the exact causes of schizophrenia are diverse and complex—and difficult to pin down. However, scientists say there is a combination of genetic, environmental and biological changes in the brain that cause symptoms of the disease.

Genetic psychiatrist Alexander Charny Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, in the US, he said that “the impetus for this study is to better understand how rare genetic variants may affect a person’s risk of developing serious mental illness, particularly schizophrenia.” Recent research has revealed that people with schizophrenia have more rare variants of truncation protein, changes in DNA that have the potential to cause a gene to produce a protein that lacks essential parts, disrupting its function. These are the risk genes for schizophrenia.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental illness that affects the perception of reality. Its carriers, who typically present symptoms between late adolescence and early adulthood, do not have the appropriate sense of proportion to interpret sensory data. The risk genes for schizophrenia affect seven in a thousand people and shorten the life of the carrier by about 15 years.