Researchers have identified two previously unknown genes linked to schizophrenia and newly implicated a third gene as carrying risk for both schizophrenia and autism. Led by the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, the multi-center study further demonstrated that the schizophrenia risk conferred by these rare damaging variants is conserved across ethnicities. The study may also point to new therapeutics.
The findings were published in the March 13 online issue of Nature Genetics.
In the study—one of the first known work of its kind to investigate schizophrenia risk across diverse populations, particularly those of African ancestry—the investigators found the two risk genes, SRRM2 and AKAP11, by comparing the gene sequences of people with schizophrenia to those of healthy controls. The meta-analysis involved existing datasets totaling up to 35,828 cases and 107,877 controls.
The work builds upon a recent study that identified 10 risk genes for schizophrenia. However, unlike the current research, the earlier study was conducted in people of predominantly white European ancestry.
