The study will help create new drugs for mental illness.
Schizophrenia is considered one of the most severe diseases. A person loses touch with reality, causing pain to family members and others. Such a severe mental condition shortens life by almost 15 years.
Scientists have found that two genes – SRRM2 and AKAP11 – do not match in genomic sequences in healthy and schizophrenic patients.
“By focusing on a subset of genes, we have identified rare damaging variants that could potentially lead to new treatments for schizophrenia,” says the author of the study. Dongjing Liu.
The third gene discovered, PCLO, was previously linked to schizophrenia, but scientists now believe it increases the risk of autism.
Diseases are known to have common genetic components. Clinically, genes can look different within the same family. The same variant can cause autism in one family member and schizophrenia in another. We are very interested in the idea that the same gene can have different manifestations, as this can be important when it comes to treating people in the clinic, the scientist continues.
In the future, scientists plan to create a more effective cure for these diseases.
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