Scientists dig deeper into the genetics of schizophrenia by evaluating microRNAs

Maria Karayiorgou, M.D., professor of psychiatry, Columbia University Medical Center. Click here for more information.

“Our studies show that alterations in microRNA processing result in synaptic and behavioral deficits,” said Dr. Gogos. Drs. Karayiorgou and Gogos have partnered together to decipher the role of individual genes from 22q11 in the development of schizophrenia by using human genetics and animal model approaches.

The significance of this work is that it implicates a completely novel, previously unsuspected group of susceptibility genes and brings investigators a step closer to understanding the biological mechanisms of this disorder. Implication of such a large family of genes (the most recent estimate puts the number of human microRNAs at at least 400 that influence the expression of as many as a third of all genes) could partly account for the genetic complexity associated with this devastating disorder and explain some of the difficulties that the researchers have encountered in their efforts to pinpoint individual genes.

Shown here is human chromosome 22 and the piece of the chromosome missing in some patients with schizophrenia. Loss of this chromosomal piece (22q11) is the only known recurrent copy... Click here for more information.

“Our hope is that the more we know about the genes involved in schizophrenia, the more targeted treatment can be,” said Dr. Gogos.

“Much in the way that cancer patients who have tested for a particular gene, such as BRAC1, can be tested and then treated with protocols designed specifically for them, we want to be able to know enough about the schizophrenic brain to target treatments to individual patients.”