Scientists identify mental illness gene

My brother-in-law had this article posted on Facebook.  It's encouraging that they are making progress in identifying the dysfunctional gene.  Hopefully we will see improvements to treatment for mental illnesses and less of the guess work!

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An international team of researchers, led by the University of Edinburgh, compared genes of 2,000 psychiatric patients to 2,000 healthy people to pinpoint the 'ABCA13' gene.

They discovered it is partially inactive in patients suffering severe illnesses such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and depression.

The results suggest the gene plays a crucial role in maintaining brain health as scientists found it was faulty more frequently in patients with mental illness than the control group.

Identifying the genes that predispose people to psychiatric illness is considered the most important step in developing new ways to tackle the condition.

Lead researcher Douglas Blackwood, professor of Psychiatric Genetics at the University of Edinburgh, said the discovery would help the development of new drugs to treat mental illness.

He said: ''This is an exciting step forward in our understanding of the underlying causes of some common mental illnesses.

''These risk genes could signpost new directions for treatments.''

Dr Ben Pickard, of the University of Strathclyde, said the team believed ABCA13 influences the way fat molecules are used in the brain.

They are now focused on finding out exactly how that occurs.

Dr Pickard said: ''This study 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.''

The research results are published in the American Journal of Human Genetics.