Professor
Sir Mike Owen, at the MRC Centre for Neuropsychiatric Genetics and Genomics at
Cardiff University have found more than fifty new genes that may increase your
risk of developing schizophrenia. In a study, titled, “Common
Schizophrenia alleles are enriches in mutation-intolerant genes and in regions
under strong background selection,” conducted using more than one-hundred
thousand individuals, and of those forty-thousand with diagnosed schizophrenia,
genes associated with the development of schizophrenia and other
neurodevelopment diseases, such as autism, have been isolated.
From
this experiment, a major link between the genes associated with schizophrenia and
the genes dealing with development has been discovered. If your genes
associated with development are compromised, then your risk for developing
schizophrenia is increased. For the first time, it is understood that the
mutation of these fifty genes can increase your risk for development schizophrenia.
In addition, an important question was answered: “if people with schizophrenia have, on
average, fewer children than people without the disorder, why does
schizophrenia still affect so many people?” The answer is that the genes affiliated
with the mental disorder occur in a good majority of the population, and the
area, on the genome, where these genes reside, is where natural selection is
not very effective. With that, these genes have yet to disappear from the genome,
which is why people are still affected by schizophrenia.
This
study will be furthered, but, for now, has opened the door for many new
treatment options. By understanding the complexity and genetics behind
schizophrenia, personalized treatment options may be available, in the future. With
better treatment options, those suffering from the schizophrenia will be able
to live a better life, without worrying about their illness.
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