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【medical-news】研究人员发现3种新的精神分裂症基
LONDON (Reuters) - International researchers have identified three new DNA variations that increase the risk of schizophrenia and said on Wednesday they were some of the strongest genetic links yet found to the disease.
The results published in two independent studies in the journal Nature also confirmed a previously known genetic variation and could lead to new treatments for the condition that affects around 1 in 100 people, the researchers said.
"This is, if you like, the beginning of a new era in the field, said David St. Clair, a psychiatrist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who worked on both studies.
"Once we understand what the mutations are doing, new drugs and new approaches like preventative measures can be developed. It opens up the way to new methods for classifying and diagnosing people with the illness."
Schizophrenia, characterized by hallucinations, delusions and disordered thinking, is far more common in men than in women and is usually diagnosed in late adolescence or early adulthood.
While anti-psychotic drugs such as AstraZeneca's Seroquel and Eli Lilly and Co's Zyprexa can help, such drugs do not cure the mental illness and can cause unpleasant side-effects, including sometimes dangerous weight gain.
In the studies, the researchers analyzed the genes of 6,000 to 10,000 people from around the world, half of whom had schizophrenia.
They found one mutation on chromosome 1, two on chromosome 15 and confirmed a variant associated with the condition on chromosome 22. These changes can increase the risk of developing schizophrenia by up to 15 times, the researchers said.
The findings also suggest that the variants, while rare, pack a powerful punch and occur at a far higher rate than other uncommon mutations -- around 1 in every 10,000 people rather than 1 in every 10 million, St. Clair said.
"They are more common than your average rare variant," he said in a telephone interview. "We are now looking to see if there are environmental factors that affect the rate these variations come into the population."
In each case certain genes are knocked out, or deleted, on the chromosome. They are also found in some people with autism and other psychological disorders, suggesting the conditions may be related, the researchers said.
The next step is determining how these deletions affect brain function, according to the researchers, who included scientists from deCODE genetics in Iceland and the U.S. based Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard Universities in Massachusetts.
"This work opens up an entirely new way to think about schizophrenia and eventually will suggest avenues for researching therapies for the sake of patients and families suffering from this terrible disorder," said Pamela Sklar of the Broad Institute, who led one of the studies.
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSL069923520080730 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 Researchers find 3 new genes for schizophrenia
研究人员发现3种新的精神分裂症基因
LONDON (Reuters) - International researchers have identified three new DNA variations that increase the risk of schizophrenia and said on Wednesday they were some of the strongest genetic links yet found to the disease.
伦敦（路透社）－国际研究人员发现3种新的DNA变异可增加精神分裂症发病风险，本星期三（7月30日）的报道指出这也是迄今所发现的该病与遗传相关的最有力证据。
The results published in two independent studies in the journal Nature also confirmed a previously known genetic variation and could lead to new treatments for the condition that affects around 1 in 100 people, the researchers said.
研究人员称这一发表在《自然》由两个独立研究小组完成的研究结果，不仅证实先前人们对该病相关遗传变异的认识，还有希望会涌现出治疗该病的新方法，并可能因此改变发病率为1%的精神分裂症病人的生活。
"This is, if you like, the beginning of a new era in the field, said David St. Clair, a psychiatrist at the University of Aberdeen in Scotland who worked on both studies.
曾参与了该两项研究的Aberdeen大学（位于Scotland）的精神病专家David St. Clair指出：“该研究对于精神分裂症这个领域来说具有划时代意义。”
"Once we understand what the mutations are doing, new drugs and new approaches like preventative measures can be developed. It opens up the way to new methods for classifying and diagnosing people with the illness."
“一旦我们掌握了这些变异在疾病发生过程中所起的真正作用，就可开发出新药和预防此病的新手段，使诊断精神分裂症并对患者进行新的分类的新方法的问世成为可能。”
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作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-05-06 05:14
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