Does Gender Leave you at a Higher Disposition for Psychiatric Diseases?

 

Researchers have found that certain psychotic disorders are linked to sex genes. This is to help shed light as to why disorders like, depression, schizophrenia, and bipolar disorders appear and affect differently in men and women. There were almost 12 SNPs that differed in men and women in the same disorders of these three primarily studied. These SNP were found in neuronal, cardiovascular, and vascular pathways. The SNPs were seen giving an increased chance of developing one disease in one sex. Scientists have been trying to see how genetics and environmental factors increase the risk for these disorders. IPSYCH and Psychiatric Genomics Consortium have been the main contenders in this research. It has been seen that men have a slightly higher risk for schizophrenia but two folds higher for major depression and anxiety disorders in women. This is true for all men and women, meaning it does not differ throughout cultures. The SNP in IDO2 gene has been found to decrease the risk of major depression & schizophrenia in women while increasing the risk in men. But it did increase the risk of bipolar in women and decrease the risk in men. This can be used to help specify treatments for the different sexes.

Overall, I find this very interesting and very important for this day in age. We have seen so many mental health diseases but is it due to environmental differences. Or have they have always been there, but undiagnosed. These genetic predispositions that are leaving people at higher risk to these disorders and a heavily judgmental society due to the use of social media I believe have been sending the amount of diagnosed mental health diseases skyrocketing. I currently work in a pharmacy and it is sad to say but I would say around 95% of prescriptions are related to the treatment of mental disorders whether it be antipsychotics, mood stabilizers, etc. Menta; health has never been more important in this difficult time we are in and this research will help our understanding of mental diseases furtherer.

 

https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/genetic-variants-tied-to-sex-differences-in-psychiatric-disorders-68624

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30127341/

https://www.the-scientist.com/features/sex-differences-in-the-brain-34758

A New SRY Gene Fragment has been Discovered

    The SRY gene is a y linked sex determining gene. The SRY gene encodes for male genitalia. The SRY gene is located on one exon. The SRY gene is pleiotropic as it encodes for multiple traits related to male sexual development. If one were to have two x chromosomes but an SRY gene they would have male genitalia (testes). If one were to have the x and y chromosomal pair, but no SRY gene they would have female genitalia (ovaries). Also, if one were to have any sex linked chromosome combination with an SRY gene but the SRY gene is rendered inactive (due to a mutation) they would have female genitalia.

    The SRY gene was discovered in 1985 by studying the DNA sequences of a person with ovaries and a XY gene and 3 people with testis and XX genes. This supported a long held theory that having male genitalia was not a consequence of having a Y chromosome but having a specific gene on the chromosome. The development of human sex charactaristics and it's linkage to specific genes remains largely a mystery.

    Recently researchers in Japan have discovered another piece in mouse SRY. This second piece of mouse SRY, SRY-T, consists of two exons. This SRY-T also seals "instability sequences" on the end of SRY preventing it in degrading, meaning SRY-T is just as crucial for the development of testis as SRY. So the same differences in phenotype when displacing the SRY gene also occur when displacing the SRY-T gene, this was confirmed by researchers at the University of Queensland by using CRISPR. I think this new discovery of a male genitalia linked gene will give us more insight into the development of sex characteristics of both male, female and intergender people.

 Links:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/sry-gene

http://www.embryology.ch/anglais/ugenital/molec02.html#:~:text=It%20was%20only%20thanks%20to,was%20finally%20identified%20in%201985.&text=The%20sequencing%20and%20cloning%20of,is%20responsible%20for%20determining%20gender.

https://theconversation.com/we-discovered-a-missing-gene-fragment-thats-shedding-new-light-on-how-males-develop-147348