Researchers identify DNA methylation markers associated with increased risk of schizophrenia in newborns

An international team of researchers led by researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University has identified for the first time a marker that may indicate early whether a person is susceptible to schizophrenia.

The ability to predict the risk of developing schizophrenia later in life may enable early detection and intervention, allowing researchers to reduce the disease’s impact on individuals, families and communities. I expect that the result will be molecule psychiatry.

Schizophrenia is a serious mental disorder that is most commonly discovered in young adulthood. Affecting his 1% of the world’s population, it can cause debilitating effects such as a feeling of losing touch with reality. According to the World Health Organization, people with disabilities are up to three times more likely to die prematurely and often face discrimination, social isolation and debilitating physical illness.

Although there is a genetic component to schizophrenia, there is strong evidence that environmental factors play a role in whether a person develops the disease. These environmental factors can cause chemical changes to DNA that control which genes are turned on or off through a process called methylation.

The study of potential genetic triggers for diseases like schizophrenia is complex. This is because methylation changes can be driven by the disease itself and related factors such as stress and medication that usually accompany it.

for the effect of disease on the methylome – a set of terms for; nucleic acid Methylation modifications in an organism’s genome or in specific cells; ideally, samples should be obtained before disease occurs. However, this is not possible because schizophrenia is a brain disorder.

To solve this problem, the research team is led by Dr. Edwin van den Oord and Dr. Karolina Aberg from VCU’s Department of Pharmacy. -; Invent your own approach.

First, they looked at blood samples taken immediately after birth from 333 Swedish infants and tracked 24 million methylation marks. The team used statistical analysis that allowed them to study methylation marks at a cell-type-specific level.

Because the sampled blood was collected within hours of life, many years before symptoms of schizophrenia developed, these findings are not influenced by the disease itself or other postnatal factors. .

Karolina Aberg, Ph.D., Principal Investigator of the Study and Associate Director of VCU’s Center for Biomarker Research and Precision Medicine

The team then validated the key findings from the blood samples by comparing them with transcript data from 595 postmortem brain samples from different people. There are people with schizophrenia, and there are control people who do not have schizophrenia. Brain samples were provided by researchers around the world, including Europe, North America, and Australia.

The team also compared their findings with methylation data from adult blood taken from schizophrenia cases and controls. 2,970 people in total.

The researchers concluded that certain differences in methylation already present in newborns indicate an increased risk of developing schizophrenia.

“In other words, we were able to identify methylation differences between individuals who develop schizophrenia later in life and specific controls for specific cell types in neonatal blood.said van den Oord, the paper’s first listed author. molecular psychiatry Director of Biomarker Research Center and Precision Medicine Center. “We will continue our research on these methylation differences to develop potential future clinical biomarkers that enable early detection and intervention..”

This work was supported by a $2.3 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. Laboratory work and analyzes were performed at his VCU’s Center for Biomarker Research and Precision Medicine, which is affiliated with the VCU School of Pharmacy.