Cell: many mental disorders result from the same genetic variation

December 28, 2019 / BIOON / - -- in a new study, researchers from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and the psychiatric Genomics Consortium found that many different mental disorders have the same genetic structure Mental illness affects more than 25% of the population in a given year In the largest study of its kind, they identified more than 100 genetic variants that affect the risk of more than one mental illness The related research results were recently published in cell journal, and the title of the paper was "generic relationship IPS, Novell loci, and pleiotopic mechanisms across eight psychological disorders" Picture from cell, 2019, DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.020 Genes are made up of DNA fragments; changes in DNA sequences produce genetic variations that increase or decrease the risk of disease Many individual genetic variations have been identified that affect the risk of specific mental illness However, genes are often pluripotent, which means that they have many effects in the body Identifying genetic variants that affect the risk of more than one mental illness is an important step in improving the diagnosis and treatment of these disorders, said Dr Jordan w smoller, co-author of the paper and director of the Department of psychiatry and neurodevelopmental genetics at Massachusetts General Hospital "Understanding how specific genetic variations lead to a range of diseases may tell us about the extent to which these diseases share the same biological characteristics." To identify these pleiotropic genetic variations, the researchers used a technique called genome-wide association to analyze genetic data from 494162 healthy controls and 232964 patients diagnosed with at least one of the eight common mental disorders This analysis identified 109 genetic variants that affect the risk of more than one mental illness Some diseases have many common genetic variations, which allow the researchers to divide these mental disorders into three groups of genetically related diseases: disorders characterized by compulsive behavior (anorexia nervosa, obsessive-compulsive disorder and the lesser degree of Tourette's syndrome); emotional and mental disorders (manic depression, major depression) And schizophrenia); early onset neurodevelopmental disorders (autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, and Tourette's syndrome) The researchers also found evidence that genes associated with a variety of mental disorders increase expression from mid pregnancy and appear to play an important role in brain development Dr Phil h Lee, a computational geneticist at the center for genomics at Massachusetts General Hospital and the first author of the paper, said that understanding which genetic variations increase the risk of multiple mental disorders could provide new clues about the biological pathways leading to mental disorders "Understanding how diseases are related from a biological perspective may help us classify and diagnose mental health," Lee said In addition, the new study identified several genetic variants that have a very wide range of effects on the risk of multiple mental disorders, which may prove to be important findings in the prevention and treatment of mental disorders "To the extent that these genes may have a wide range of functions, they may be potential targets for the development of new therapies for a variety of diseases," smoller said (BIOON Com) reference: 1 Phil h Lee et al Genetic relationships, new loci, and pleiotopic mechanisms across eight psychological disorders Cell, 2019, doi:10.1016/j.cell.2019.11.020 2.Largest study of its kind reveals that many psychiatric disorders arise from common genes https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-12-largest-kind-reveals-psychiatric-disorders.html