Researchers have found a gene that is partially inactive in patients with severe mental illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression. The scientists say that identifying the genes that predispose people to psychiatric illness is seen as the most important step in developing new ways to tackle the conditions.

 

The international team of scientists, led by the University of Edinburgh studied the genes of 2,000 psychiatric patients and compared them to 2,000 healthy people. They found that the gene, known as ABCA13, was faulty more frequently in patients with mental illness than in the control group. The results suggest the gene plays a crucial role in maintaining brain health.

 

The team believes the gene may influence the way fat molecules are used in brain cells and the researchers will now focus on finding out exactly how this occurs. It is hoped that the discovery will lead to new drugs that could restore mental health in patients with psychiatric illness.

 

“This is an exciting step forward in our understanding of the underlying causes of some common mental illnesses,” says Douglas Blackwood, professor of psychiatric genetics. “These risk genes could signpost new directions for treatments.”

 

The research, conducted in collaboration with scientists at the Universities of Aberdeen, Queensland and North Carolina and published in the American Journal of Human Genetics, is the first to identify multiple points of DNA damage within a single gene that are linked with psychiatric illness.

 

“It strongly suggests that this gene may regulate an important part of brain function that fails in individuals diagnosed with these devastating disorders,” says Ben Pickard, who was part of the Edinburgh team but now works at the University of Strathclyde.